Topic: Where to get Sales figures?

[WuTangTurtle]

Quick question where would i go to find software sales and hardware sales for the U.S.

[ruby_onix]

Sales data is typically colected and organized by NPD, a group that then sells their info to financial investors and other interested parties. Supposedly they don't count every single sale (like, I think WalMart doesn't participate with NPD), but use a mathamatical model to make a very close guess. At the very least, it's a LOT better than the bogus "units shipped" numbers that companies like Sony tend to rely on.

It's a safe bet that most of us on this message board are not investors, and can't afford to pay for these numbers.

Frequently, a company like Nintendo or Microsoft will use these numbers to tout their own victories, but those never tell you the whole story, because the whole truth is rarely in anyone's interests, and they'd most likely have to pay NPD more to publically use the complete numbers anyways.

Fortunately for us, the numbers usually end up getting leaked, on some forum or another, about halfway through the month following the one that's being reported on.

These "leaks" are sometimes hoaxes though, so they're really only good for casual info. If you've got real money on the line, it's a bad idea to make use of anything you heard someone say on a message board.

The MagicBox frequently mentions sales figures from various regions around the world in their news headlines (I wouldn't know if their sources are "official" or not), and their forums seem like a good place to start, if you want to keep an eye out for reports of sales figures.

[mouse_clicker]

Quote
Supposedly they don't count every single sale (like, I think WalMart doesn't participate with NPD), but use a mathamatical model to make a very close guess.

For this reason you should be very wary of Nintendo sales figures from NPD, as it's estimated that a huge portion of Nintendo's sales come from Wal-Mart.

[Bloodworth]

Er.. I was looking at the NPD Funworld site last night, and they had a spotlight on Wal-Mart.  

[Mario]

Quote
For this reason you should be very wary of Nintendo sales figures from NPD, as it's estimated that a huge portion of Nintendo's sales come from Wal-Mart.

Yes, and NPD do take that into account, within their "mathematical model", they dont just take the average from every other store and assume that this is how many Walmart sold, they look at Walmarts consumers and their model etc. and make predictions based on that. I won't go into more detail, but it's all quite accurate.

Anyway, there should be a website entirely dedicated to sales.. but there isn't.. maybe somebody should start one..

[mouse_clicker]

Yes, but Wal-Mart is a huge retailer, and I wouldn't take predictions as hard factual evidence.

But, if what Bloodworth says is true and NPD does track Wal-Mart's sales, everything's just peachy.  

[Uncle Rich AiAi]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
Anyway, there should be a website entirely dedicated to sales.. but there isn't.. maybe somebody should start one..

Maybe that should be you or ruby_onix?!

[GaimeGuy]

I hate the-magicbox.   They actually  use  Dengeki's sales figures, which are provided by  Media Create    The-MagicBox.com  NEVER gives sources to news stories, they  usually  screw up  rumors, reporting them as facts, often, and frankly,  I could do without   the attempts of installing Gator on  my  computer.  -_-