April 2008 NPD Numbers

It’s the middle of May and you know what that means: April’s NPD numbers!  And April’s numbers are huge; let’s start with the hardware:

1. Wii-714,200
2. Nintendo DS-414,800
3. PSP-192,000
4. Xbox 360-188,000
5. PlayStation 3-187,100
6. PlayStation 2-124,400

So the Wii wins again, for the umpteenth month in the row, the DS ends up right behind it, once again, and total hardware sales are $426.2 million, up 26% from April last year.  Now let’s get to some non-obvious things about these numbers.

The PSP once again outsold the Xbox 360 and the PS3 and it wasn’t even fueled by God of War’s release this month.  Is it because the PSP is in high demand at the moment, or simply because it costs significantly less?  My guess is the latter.

And the most interesting numbers are the Xbox 360 and the PS3 sales.  And it’s not because they are so close, it’s because they are so low.  Compared to the 714,200 units that the Wii moved, the sales figures for the two consoles GTA IV was on are very low.  But you have to take into consideration the fact that GTA IV was only out for five reporting days (numbers ran till May 3), and those hardcore fans who bought the game mid-week probably already had 360’s or PS3’s.  The GTA IV driven sales will likely show in the May NPD numbers.  But that doesn’t mean GTA IV didn’t sell a boatload of copies in the first few days it was on sale; it just means it didn’t drive that many console purchases those two days.  Just look at the software figures:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)-1,850,000
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)-1,120,000
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)-1,000,000
4. Wii Play (Wii)-360,000
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)-326,000
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3)-224,000
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS)-202,000
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS)-202,000
9. Guitar Hero III (Wii)-152,000
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360)-141,000

So the Xbox 360 GTA outsold the PS3 GTA easily, but not quite by the 2-to-1 ratio that Aaron Greenburg claimed it did (there, I gave both Microsoft and Sony fanboys ammunition).  Mario Kart Wii did expectedly good and Smash Bros had another good month.  Nintendo will rejoice with these numbers because of the top ten selling titles of April, six were on the Wii or DS.  This is great news for the company who has been known to sell hardware massively, but lack a little on the software end.

All in all, a great month for the gaming industry.  Adding to the $426.2 million in hardware sales was the $654.7 million in software sales and the $154 million in accessory sales.  Tally that up and you get a $1.23 billion month.  That’s up 47% from the pittance of $839 million recorded the same month last year and raises the total earnings of 2008 so far to $5.47 billion.  But will this exponential growth continue with all the talks of an impending recession?  We shall see.

[via Joystiq]