The latest US games industry sales figures are in from the NPD. The figures below represent the February 2011 sales period. Whilst there are always numerous economic forces at play, keeping an eye on US trends is a quick way to assess the overall global health and performance of the video gaming industry. The following comment is provided by NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.
“New physical sales within the video games industry were up 4% driven by a unit sales increase of console hardware, console software & console accessories. Dollar sales performance was also impacted by changes in average selling price which was down for console software which caused dollar sales comparisons to be flat for that category despite modest unit sales growth. Console accessories and console hardware were up more in dollars than in units due to an increase in the average selling price.”
“Within the video games industry, the console segment of the market was up 12% in dollar sales across hardware, software, accessories, and game cards while the portable segment of the market declined versus February 2010 by 27%. We are looking for the portable segment of the market to rebound beginning later this month when the highly anticipated 3DS launches in the U.S. on March 27th.”
“While our monthly sales releases cover revenues generated by new physical retail sales, sales of content outside of new physical retail represent other methods of monetization for the industry. Among these, full game and add-on content digital downloads, social network gaming, and consumer purchases of mobile apps are some of the areas where we’ve seen the greatest percentage growth over last year.”
Hardware
“The best-selling hardware system of the month was the Xbox 360 which had its biggest non-holiday (November/December) sales month ever, surpassing September 2007 when Halo 3 launched. The 250 GB system bundled with the Kinect sensor was one of the drivers of the increase in average selling price among console hardware.”
“All three console systems realized a unit sales increase over last February. All hardware systems realized a unit sales increase over January 2011.”
Software
“Call of Duty: Black Ops was the best-selling game in February, retaining the top selling spot since launch in November. It has now become the best-selling game in history, topping Wii Play.”
“Retail sales of console software were up 2% in units while the portable segment declined. The top 10 games for the month outsold the top 10 from last February by 6% in units. There were fewer new releases in February 2011 vs. February 2010, but those new releases were more productive, selling more on average than the new releases did last year.”
Accessories
“February 2011 marks the best February on record for Accessory sales in revenues generated. The top-selling SKU in accessories was the Xbox 360 1600 points card.”
“This is the 18th consecutive month of double-digit increases in both dollars and units for PS3 accessory sales, and the sixth consecutive month of double-digit increases in both dollars and units for the 360.”
“Points cards, which accounted for 22% of accessory sales and increased 52% v. February 2010, point to the increased importance of digitally distributed content sales within the games industry.”
Black Ops becomes best-selling game in history << Comments and views
Below is a tabular representation of the US gaming market during February 2011.
| NPD Group’s U.S. Games Industry Sales (New Physical Sales Channel*) – February 2011 – 4-week tracking month; Reporting Period 1/30/11 through 2/26/11 | |||
| Dollar Sales | Feb’10 | Feb’11 | CHG |
| Total US Games Sales (New Physical Channel) | $1.33B | $1.36B | 3% |
| Includes Total Content Sales (Console+Portable+PC – New Physical Channel), Video Games Hardware, and Accessories. Details below: | |||
| Total Video Game Sales (New Physical Channel) | $1.27B | $1.33B | 4% |
| Video Games Hardware | $426.4MM | $466.9MM | 10% |
| Video Games Software (Console+Portable. New Physical Sales only) | $633.6MM | $601.4MM | -5% |
| Video Games Accessories | $210.0MM | $256.9MM | 22% |
| Total Software Sales – (Console+Portable+PC – New Physical Channel) | $689.3MM | $637.4MM | -8% |
| Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC) | Rank | Publisher | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC)** | 1 | Activision Blizzard | |
| Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (360, PS3)** | 2 | Capcom USA | |
| Just Dance 2 (Wii) | 3 | Ubisoft | |
| NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP, PC) | 4 | Take 2 Interactive | |
| Dead Space 2 (360, PS3, PC)** | 5 | Electronic Arts | |
| Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3) | 6 | Majesco | |
| Bulletstorm (360, PS3, PC) | 7 | Electronic Arts | |
| Killzone 3 (PS3)** | 8 | Sony | |
| Michael Jackson The Experience (WII, DS, PSP)** | 9 | Ubisoft | |
| Mario Sports Mix (Wii) | 10 | Nintendo | |
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*NPD’s monthly point-of-sale data reports on U.S. Games Industry Sales occurring from new physical purchases at retail which is the largest channel for games sales, but it does not represent 100% of industry sales; it does not account for consumer purchases made via digital distribution, used game sales, subscriptions, mobile game apps, rentals, or social network games. NPD’s Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend, a new report on the total consumer spend against the games industry, will be issued quarterly and will be NPD’s official estimate of the consumer spend on the industry going forward. **(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware) |
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