Top selling games and consoles: US October stats

The latest analysis from the NPD Group is in, revealing the US outlook on console hardware sales and the top selling games for October 2010. Whilst there are always numerous macro-economic forces at play, keeping an eye on US trends is a quick way to assess the overall global health and performance of the gaming industry. Below are highlights from NPD Group analyst, Anita Frazier.

Overall physical video game item sales (hardware and boxed retail games) declined 4% in October, driven by hardware sales declines. “Console and portable hardware unit sales were both down about 30% versus last October, but an increase in the average retail price for console hardware softened the dollar sales impact a bit,” said Frazier.

“Unit sales for software and accessories was essentially flat [compared] to last October but an increase in the average retail price led to an improvement in dollar sales performance for those two categories versus last October,” said Frazier.

These figures reflect physical retail sales, and there is the much more difficult to analyse digital retail sector to account for. “There are revenues being generated from digital distribution, used game sales, rentals, social network games and mobile applications to name a few,” said Frazier.

NPD estimates that new physical sales across hardware, software, and accessories to account for approximately 70% of the total consumer spend on games.

Hardware

“The best-selling hardware system for the month was the Nintendo DS, while the Xbox 360 was the only platform to realize unit sales improvement over last October,” said Frazier.

“Versus last month, the Nintendo DS and the Wii were the two systems to increase unit sales on an average sales per week basis. Looking forward to November and December, these Nintendo systems are likely to benefit from holiday promotions and gift-giving.”

“While the PS3 overall did not experience an increase from September to October, the PS3 bundle with Move experienced a 15% increase over September 2010.”

“The Xbox 360 has generated the most unit sales among the console platforms on a year-to-date basis as of this month. The Nintendo DS remains the best-selling hardware system, overall.”

Software

There were plenty of new game releases in October. Madden NFL 11 is the oldest game clinging to the top 10 sales chart, having been released in August. October was also the first time sales of new physical retail software experienced a dollar sales increase since May 2010.

“As compared to last October, new launches were more productive this year. Average unit sales per new SKU were 23% higher than newly introduced SKU’s last year,” said Frazier.

Console games drove sales in October, with sales revenues up 6% on last October. Games featuring online play were up 16% in sales over last October, whilst single player games were down 2% in comparison, hinting at the growing popularity of online capable games.

The best-selling game was for October 2010 was Fallout: New Vegas from Bethesda on the Xbox 360 platform with sales of  about 679K units, including the collector’s edition said Frazier.

Top 10 Games in October 2010 (United States; New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC)

1. 1.   NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP, WII, PC)
2. 2.   Fallout: New Vegas **(360, PS3, PC)
3. 3.   Medal of Honor **(360, PS3, PC)
4. 4.   Fable III **(360)
5. 5.   Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II **(360, PS3, WII, PC, NDS)
6. 6.   Halo: Reach **(360)
7. 7.   Just Dance 2 (WII)
8. 8.   FIFA Soccer 11 (PS3, 360, WII, PS2, PSP, NDS, PC)
9. 9.   Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, WII, PS2, PSP)
10. 10. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 (PS3, 360, PS2, WII, PSP)

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)