NPD Sales Results (November 2009)

[RetroGamer01]

Okay, so I'm gonna try an experiment for the Other Gaming Boards. Every second Thursday of every month the NPD Group releases all of the sales information about games and hardware for the previous month. I'm not sure how interested people here would be about it, but I figured I would try posting it here, see if we can get good discussion going and if it works out well, I'll continue posting this info for the months to follow.

So here's the hardware numbers and software numbers for the top-selling games for November 2009:

Data care of NPD Group (via neoGAF)
Reporting Period: 11/1 - 11/28/09


PlayStation 2 203.1K
PlayStation 3 710.4K
PSP 293.9K
Xbox 360 819.5K
Wii 1.26M
Nintendo DS 1.70M


CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* (360) |Nov-09| 4.20M
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* (PS3) |Nov-09| 1.87M
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII (WII) |Nov-09| 1.39M
ASSASSIN'S CREED II (360) |Nov-09| 794.7K
LEFT 4 DEAD 2 (360) |Nov-09| 744.0K
WII SPORTS RESORT* (WII) |Jul-09| 720.2K
WII FIT PLUS* (WII) |Oct-09| 679.0K
ASSASSIN'S CREED II (PS3) |Nov-09| 448.4K
DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS* (360) |Nov-09| 362.1K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL (WII) |Apr-08| 315.0K
WII PLAY (WII) |Feb-07|
MARIO AND SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES |Oct-09|(WII)
VALUE GAME BUNDLE $19.99 (WII) |Nov-09|
MARIO & LUIGI: BOWSER'S INSIDE STORY (DS) |Sep-09|
DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS* (PS3) |Nov-09| 188,736
VALUE GAME BUNDLE $14.99 (WII) |Nov-09|
GOD OF WAR COLLECTION (PS3) |Nov-09|
HALO 3: ODST (360) |Sep-09|
BORDERLANDS (360) |Oct-09|
MADDEN NFL 10 (360) |Aug-09|


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

Analysis from NPD's Anita Frazier:

"The industry declined 7.6% versus last November, but still produced enough revenue to make this month the second-best November in industry history. YTD the industry is still up 7% over 2007. I think we all have to realize the incredible year that was 2008."

"Based on seasonality the industry looks like it will reach $20B for the year, which means December would have to be up over last year by 11%. Impossible? I don't think so. More positive economic news combined with 'frugal fatigue' could positively impact industry sales during these last weeks of the holiday season. Breaking even seems more out of reach. In order to break even to last year, December sales would have to be up 36% over December 2008."

"There was even heavier promotional activity this year than normal, and while they seem to have benefitted hardware sales, they don't appear to have positively impacted software sales since unit sales of software are down even more than dollar sales are for that category."

Hardware

"All hardware systems realized an increase over October but one would expect that from seasonality alone . I was really impressed by the performance of the PS2, which after 109 months in market is still experiencing strong sales (Nov'09 unit sales of over 200K - only a small decline from last November) ."

"While there has been a lot of focus on Wii sales as compared to last year, the system was still the best-selling console system by a margin of 54%. At this same point in the PS2 lifecycle, the PS2 was down in unit sales by 23% over the previous year, but as history has shown, it continues to have a great deal of life left in it. So focusing on a comparison to Wii's stellar 2008 performance masks the reality of just how well this system is selling."

"The PS3 realized the greatest increase over last year's November sales and had its third best month in unit sales ever, coming in just under Decembers '07 and '08."

Software

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has achieved the top spot for first-month sales of any game at the title level. Halo 3 previously held the spot when it sold 3.3 million units in September '07 in 12 days at retail. MW2 bested Halo 3's daily sales rate by 16% in its 19 days at retail in November."

"While this year's top-selling item bested last year's by 283%, it couldn't make up for softness elsewhere. The top 50 games this year sold 5% less units than did the top 50 last year."

Initial thoughts:
All I gotta say is "WOW". I knew MW2 was gonna sell well, but I did not expect over 6 million units in less than 4 weeks of sales. That's just ridiculous. Good to see NSMB up there too.

[Ashura96]

1.7 million DS units jesus christ. (Yet no DS games in the top 10 games lol)

And the consoles still haven't changed in selling rank.

What else is new? :/

[Hiryuu]

I was luling about the MW2 letters people were getting from their ISP because it uses uPNP or something similar to play games if you're serving...which basically makes the ISPs think you're a server on a standard connection when you should be business.

Hell, there's a whole site dedicated to its hate.

[RetroGamer01]

Originally Posted by Ashura96

1.7 million DS units jesus christ. (Yet no DS games in the top 10 games lol)

If we got a top 20 list, I would bet anything that the original NSMB for DS would be there. Sales for that and Mario Kart Wii are usually pretty close to each other every month and it's currently the second-best selling Mario Platformer of all time. The first, of course is the original SMB (at 40.23 Million) and it's already halfway to that milestone.

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by DJ_Patman

Initial thoughts:
All I gotta say is "WOW". I knew MW2 was gonna sell well, but I did not expect over 6 million units in less than 4 weeks of sales. That's just ridiculous. Good to see NSMB up there too.

Of course it will sell (because it's Call of Duty obviously . Though regardless of criticism against it's short storyline plus the flaws of the PC version, it continues to be a solid game both in sales and overall reaction.

[I LOVE MY DAUGHTERS]

I dont like war games, but its doing so well I figured I would ask for it for christmas.
I didnt like james bond games or fps's and I got 007 because of acclaim and loved it.

[RetroGamer01]

Originally Posted by Blackraven

Of course it will sell (because it's Call of Duty obviously . Though regardless of criticism against it's short storyline plus the flaws of the PC version, it continues to be a solid game both in sales and overall reaction.

True. But regardless of the pedigree or genre, any game that sells 6 million units in less than four weeks of sales is a jawdropper in my book. It has just never happened before. I'm actually very happy that it is doing so well though. Perhaps this is a sign of a turnaround from the decline the industry has been having as of late.

I'm also updating the OP with the rest of the Top 20 and will add their figures once I obtain them. And yeah, I was proven wrong when it came to NSMB DS...