Culture

December NPD: The Nintendo That Stole Christmas

Nintendo dominated U.S. videogame sales in December 2009 with record-breaking sales of Nintendo DS and Wii, the NPD Group said Thursday. Prior to this month, the most units of a single game machine sold in a single month was the DS’ record of 3.04 million in December 2008. Nintendo shattered that record twice this month, […]
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Nintendo dominated U.S. videogame sales in December 2009 with record-breaking sales of Nintendo DS and Wii, the NPD Group said Thursday.

Prior to this month, the most units of a single game machine sold in a single month was the DS' record of 3.04 million in December 2008. Nintendo shattered that record twice this month, moving 3.81 million Wii and 3.31 million DS.

In software sales, Nintendo had four games that sold over one million copies each and one that drew extremely close to a million. Other big sellers during the holiday season were Assassin's Creed II, Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 drew up close to each other, selling roughly 1.3 million units each.

U.S. Videogame Hardware Sales, December 2009
  1. Wii 3.81M
  2. Nintendo DS 3.31M
  3. PlayStation 3 1.36M
  4. Xbox 360 1.31M
  5. PSP 654.7K
  6. PlayStation 2 333.2K
U.S. Top Ten Console Game Sales, December 2009
  1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii, Nintendo) 2.82M
  2. Wii Fit Plus (Wii, Nintendo) 2.41M
  3. Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) 1.79M
  4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360, Activision) 1.63M
  5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3, Activision) 1.12M
  6. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo) 1.01M
  7. Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo) 936.1K
  8. Assassin's Creed II (360, Ubisoft) 783.1K
  9. Left 4 Dead 2 (360, Electronic Arts) 728.5K
  10. Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS, Nintendo) 656.7K

NPD also released a list of the month's top ten boxed PC games, but did not include the actual number of units sold for each:

  1. The Sims 3 (Electronic Arts)
  2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack (Blizzard)
  3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (Electronic Arts)
  4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest (Blizzard)
  5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision)
  6. World of Warcraft (Blizzard)
  7. The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts)
  8. Spore (Electronic Arts)
  9. Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
  10. Empire: Total War (Sega)

All in all, it was a healthy month for the industry – in fact, said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement today, it was the industry's "biggest sales month ever, besting last December by 4%."

But it wasn't enough, she said, to offset the year-on-year decline in 2009, – full-year sales were 8% less than in 2008.

This month also marks the first time that PlayStation 3 has sold over 1 million units in a single month, and drawing up even with Xbox 360 is a big deal for Sony – it's setting its own personal best record this month, while sales of Microsoft's console are down versus December 2008.

Call of Duty, says NPD, is now the fourth-best selling game of all time.

Finally, one more data point for you: NPD says that Madden NFL 10 sold 1.5 million units across all platforms.

I may have more analysis later as we continue discussion of this massive month.

Image: Nintendo

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