Wii flirts with the million mark; the DS laughs at it.
The NPD Group has released its U.S. video game sales figures for the month of November, and the numbers are downright staggering across the board:
November 2007 Hardware Sales
Nintendo DS -1.53 million
Wii - 981k
Xbox 360 - 770k
PSP - 567k
PlayStation 2 - 496k
PlayStation 3 - 466k
The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and the numbers prove it. All hardware numbers have essentially doubled from their normal figures, except for the Nintendo DS, which is in a different league altogether. Last month, Nintendo's handheld outsold the PSP, PS3, and PS2 combined, which is simply extraordinary. The Wii might have sold just as much if not for its relative lack of supply.
November 2007 Top Ten Software Sales
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 1.57 million
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 1.12 million
Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360) - 980k
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) - 967k
Wii Play w/Remote (Wii) - 564k
Mass Effect (Xbox 360) - 473k
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) - 444k
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) - 426k
Halo 3 (Xbox 360) - 387k
Assassin's Creed (PS3) - 377k
Other than the outstanding performance of Activision's Call of Duty 4 (especially the Xbox 360 version), there are no real surprises on the software side of the fence. Super Mario Galaxy joins three other games to sell a million copies across all platforms in November. Also, Wii Play is still selling, and Guitar Hero III for Wii is as well, despite the mono audio issue.
Overall, the video game industry took in $2.63 billion in November, a 52% increase over last November. Last November, the Wii and PS3 were released in North America, so this increase is a good benchmark for comparisons moving forward. Half of all money spent on gaming was toward video game software, the $1.3 billion being a 62% increase from the same period last year.