This is a forum dedicated to NPD data and other lists of game sales, both in the US and beyond.
I apologize if others already have this info, but it took me a while to find it and I had always been looking for some solid data instead of speculation (which is usually all I had to go on with the US).
EDIT: Fixed the link.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: willie1234 on June 09, 2006, 11:07:18 AM
interesting. The 360 seems to have picked up some momentum post e3, but overall, in north america sales seem to be somewhat flat for it being the only next gen system out.
I wonder if this is not due to the price. If so, it does not bode well for the ps3 at all. A surge in ps2 sales, related to price cuts shown in the above link, seem to indicate that the console market is very sensitive to price.
Another possibility is that consumers are waiting until all 3 are out to evaluate which to buy. This would give ps3 a window of opportunity.
Overall, I am surprised the 360 is not doing better.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 09, 2006, 11:30:21 AM
I also notice that the PSP is supposedly outselling the DS in the US, but at the same time, there isn't even a SINGLE PSP game in the top 20.
Also, Mario DDR made a strong comeback, according to Best Buy, and of course, NSMB topped the Best Buy charts for two weeks.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: couchmonkey on June 09, 2006, 11:35:29 AM
I think 360 is just dealing with the post-launch drought. Right now PS2 has everything but power going for it compared to Xbox 360: a huge game lineup, lower price, and an equal or larger selection of new releases, led by Kingdom Hearts II. The number of 360 games near the top of the chart is pretty impressive (although higher pricing may be boosting them a bit).
It'll be interesting to see if the PS3 launch throws some cold water on the PS2 fire. If I remember right, Xbox actually kept selling well in North America last Christmas, but now it has definitely died down.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Kairon on June 09, 2006, 01:54:53 PM
I don't think 220,000 units a month is bad. The DS sells that much in Japan in the same amount of time, right?
~Carmine M. Red Kairon@aol.com
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Jin-X on June 09, 2006, 02:32:33 PM
So what the hell are people buying the PSP for? Fashion accesory?
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Ages on June 09, 2006, 03:11:11 PM
Quote Originally posted by: Kairon I don't think 220,000 units a month is bad. The DS sells that much in Japan in the same amount of time, right?
~Carmine M. Red Kairon@aol.com
The DS tends to selle about that much every two weeks...so yah, being the only next gen system out, it 360 isnt doing so hot
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: ShyGuy on June 09, 2006, 05:55:01 PM
Who is buying all these PSPs? Does Kutaragi have a garage full of them?
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: IceCold on June 09, 2006, 07:03:21 PM
Quote Originally posted by: Kairon I don't think 220,000 units a month is bad. The DS sells that much in Japan in the same amount of time, right?
~Carmine M. Red Kairon@aol.com
Try tripling that..
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on June 09, 2006, 07:21:08 PM
Quote Originally posted by: Kairon I don't think 220,000 units a month is bad. The DS sells that much in Japan in the same amount of time, right?
~Carmine M. Red Kairon@aol.com
The DS in Japan sells that amount in about a week, not a month. Japanese sales charts are released every week, Check them out your self
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 09, 2006, 07:22:52 PM
Quote Originally posted by: ShyGuy Who is buying all these PSPs? Does Kutaragi have a garage full of them?
My conspiracy theory is that Sony is either lying on sales figures or shipment figures.
It doesn't add up. The PSP's tie in ratio for software is horrible. If the hardware sales figures are to be believed, it means that 50% of PSP buyers bought the system without buying a game.
What are they using it for? The iPod is a better movie/mp3 player and if they want movies, they can get a portable DVD player for $70 and up which uses the media format which they've been buying all the long anyway.
This is why I'm convinced that Sony isn't being entirely forthcoming about their numbers. It just doesn't add up.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Kairon on June 09, 2006, 07:44:43 PM
They're buying it because they think it's cheese. That you can listen to outside.
~Carmine M. Red Kairon@aol.com
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Athrun Zala on June 09, 2006, 08:10:53 PM
yep, that site is great, have been checking for a long while now (since last year)
about sony, the thing is, the numbers they release are just shipment numbers, not actual sales....which is decieving, since it doesn't tell us how many have actually been sold.......I bet like 6.000.000 are sitting in warehouses gathering dust...
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: KDR_11k on June 09, 2006, 08:28:27 PM
NPD does list sales by polling retailers, however they extrapolate Walmart sales and such. Depending on how accurate the extrapolation is many of those PSP sales may never have happened.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 09, 2006, 08:42:03 PM
Quote Originally posted by: KDR_11k Depending on how accurate the extrapolation is many of those PSP sales may never have happened.
I'm assuming so because like I said, I have a hard time believing that people will pay $249 for a piece of hardware which is too big to fit in a pocket, only plays proprietary movies, has much cheaper alternatives on the market for all it's purposes (iPod shuffle $69 + portable DVD player $70 = $139) and isn't even being bought with a game.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Deguello on June 09, 2006, 10:27:25 PM
KDR is correct. The NPD does not get data from the following retail outlets:
1. Toys'R'Us - The largest Toy store 2. Amazon - The largest seller of videogames online 3. Walmart - The spawn of Satan and coincidentally the biggest videogame retailer in the United States.
Earlier (2004) they claimed as a top mark that their accuracy is 57% of the market. This went down everytime Walmart opened a store, somebody bought something online, or some EB went out of business/merged with Gamestop. This has probably even gone down to as far as 45%-50%, which is truly not representative of tha American Market. Their numbers are "trusted" by default as they have no competitor, AND you have to pay through the nose to even see the data.
Since such a huge chunk of data is missing and they simply guess the numbers by assuming the game sold as well in the other part of the data, it doesn't seem so bad until you realize that the EB shopper and the Walmart shopper are two totally different beasts. KLike KDR said, they may be grossly exaggerating or fearfully underestimating the true game and console sales.
This is totally opposite to the Japanese market, as they have many stat tracking services performed for free with 70% market accuracy.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on June 10, 2006, 01:32:58 AM
Really though if PSP was keeping up with DS I wouldn't be surprised, it seems about every place I go to the PSP is right out in the open with TONS of accessories, yet NDS is jammed in a corner somewhere. If you were to judge a system's sucess by how visible and impressive its display is, then PSP would be stomping the heck out of NDS.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Artimus on June 10, 2006, 06:46:22 AM
I really dont see how you can have sales data that doesn't include WalMart. I mean, Nintendo probably does their best sales there.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 10, 2006, 09:15:09 AM
Quote Originally posted by: Artimus I really dont see how you can have sales data that doesn't include WalMart.
Me neither, but I'll take this over, well...nothing.
If Best Buy shows that NSMB topped the charts for two weeks, I can tell that it sold very well in the US, at least.
If only Nintendo released their own sales data...
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: couchmonkey on June 10, 2006, 01:04:10 PM
It is weird that there are no PSP games on the list, but I don't doubt the hardware sales, I guess some people are just using it for it's other functions, and the rest are splitting their game choices up...there are actually a lot of games on the system, most of them are just faceless generic stuff.
It would be interesting to see software sales from March, when Daxter was released.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Athrun Zala on June 10, 2006, 01:50:50 PM
Quote Originally posted by: couchmonkey It would be interesting to see software sales from March, when Daxter was released.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: ruby_onix on June 10, 2006, 02:33:26 PM
Quote Originally posted by: Deguello KDR is correct. The NPD does not get data from the following retail outlets:
1. Toys'R'Us - The largest Toy store 2. Amazon - The largest seller of videogames online 3. Walmart - The spawn of Satan and coincidentally the biggest videogame retailer in the United States.
Earlier (2004) they claimed as a top mark that their accuracy is 57% of the market. This went down everytime Walmart opened a store, somebody bought something online, or some EB went out of business/merged with Gamestop. This has probably even gone down to as far as 45%-50%, which is truly not representative of tha American Market. Their numbers are "trusted" by default as they have no competitor, AND you have to pay through the nose to even see the data.
Since such a huge chunk of data is missing and they simply guess the numbers by assuming the game sold as well in the other part of the data, it doesn't seem so bad until you realize that the EB shopper and the Walmart shopper are two totally different beasts. KLike KDR said, they may be grossly exaggerating or fearfully underestimating the true game and console sales.
This is totally opposite to the Japanese market, as they have many stat tracking services performed for free with 70% market accuracy.
The top American political polls track something like 10,000 opinions in order to estimate 300,000,000. That's like what? 0.003%?
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Deguello on June 10, 2006, 04:05:43 PM
If your point is that American political polls, on the whole, are inaccurate as well, you might have a point. However you are certainly overcounting the U.S. Population, AND assuming every person counted in the Population either chooses to vote, or is able to vote (whether blocked by age or legal disenfranchisement). Barely above 54% of the American Voting populaces vote in reality. Also, there are NUMEROUS political polls (AP, Pew, Zogby, Rasmussen, Gallup, as well as as each major news station having its own on occasion), each with their own methodology. And these only measure opinion, an intangible quality.
In contrast, there is only one Game Sales group in the US, and it doesn't even count the largest contributor to said game market. Its inaccuracy is distressing, especially since they don't say "well, this is only half the market that we have surveyed, take it or leave it." They simply crudely estimated based on the data given and then say "this is how everything sold last month."
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: SixthAngel on June 10, 2006, 06:10:34 PM
Top American political polls can be very wrong and if you for look them up they should tell you how wrong they could be (they never tell you on the news). To compare these two you would have to get rid of entire group that should be represented in the political poll, like those with a lower income, because that is what NPD does. A statistics professor I had a while back said there are three levels of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: TrueNerd on June 10, 2006, 08:44:18 PM
I do have one friend that owns a PSP and doesn't own any games. He bought a 2 gig stick and put a bunch of emulated games on it, porn, and a couple tv shows. He is definitely someone that I would classify as a very casual gamer who spends most/all of his gaming time playing WOW. Maybe this is a cool thing to do, I don't know. It makes sense though, it is kinda silly to buy a PSP for its sh*t games.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Renny on June 12, 2006, 06:23:32 AM
About Wal•Mart: one of their greatest achievements and assets is sales tracking. They wouldn't divulge what is so valuable to them internally and to manufacturer relations. That's my guess as to why they don't offer sales data.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 12, 2006, 08:24:41 AM
Quote Originally posted by: TrueNerd I do have one friend that owns a PSP and doesn't own any games. He bought a 2 gig stick and put a bunch of emulated games on it, porn, and a couple tv shows. He is definitely someone that I would classify as a very casual gamer who spends most/all of his gaming time playing WOW. Maybe this is a cool thing to do, I don't know. It makes sense though, it is kinda silly to buy a PSP for its sh*t games.
He sounds like he'd be a rarity, though.
Or maybe I'm completely wrong: maybe people DO buy Sony products just assuming that they'll be better than others of the same type without doing any research beforehand.
It just doesn't make sense to me. Portable DVD players are much cheaper and not much bigger than a PSP. There are MP3 players like the iPod shuffle for $69 or cheaper which you can wear around your neck (I have one and you cannot beat the convenience of never having to worry about where the damn thing is).
If someone merely took a stroll around the Wal-Mart tech center, they'd see both the iPod and portable DVD players which are cheaper than a PSP even when combined.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: JonLeung on June 12, 2006, 09:52:57 AM
I saw one guy with a PSP, just once, on the bus, and he was watching American Dad on it.
All I hear/read about on the Internet regarding the PSP are people trying to hack it and do stuff like put videos and ROMs on it.
The PSP is essentially a tech toy - and maybe my scope is limited - but from what I've seen, if I didn't know any better, I wouldn't've ever thought it was a gaming machine (that is, with its own official library of games).
Considering the price and game selection, compared to the DS's, and the general uselessness of UMDs, I'm surprised that it does as well as it does at all. Well, I haven't actually looked at the sales data that this topic is about, but I bet it's higher than it deserves.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 12, 2006, 10:10:56 AM
According to the data, the PSP is outselling the DS in the US over the last few months and yet there don't seem to be game sales accompanying it.
I'm betting that some of it is people waiting for the DSLite's release so I wouldn't be surprised if we get a surge in DS software now.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: couchmonkey on June 12, 2006, 12:22:22 PM
I think DS Lite will have a nice impact (I know people who were waiting for it), but it won't be like Japan...hopefully we'll see sales surge to 200,000 or so for the month.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on June 12, 2006, 07:52:10 PM
Quote Originally posted by: couchmonkey I think DS Lite will have a nice impact (I know people who were waiting for it), but it won't be like Japan...hopefully we'll see sales surge to 200,000 or so for the month.
I know even more people waiting for a BLACK DS Lite... we were also waiting for a BLACK version of DS Fat too but it never came.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: TrueNerd on June 12, 2006, 08:47:57 PM
Quote Originally posted by: Smash_Brother According to the data, the PSP is outselling the DS in the US over the last few months and yet there don't seem to be game sales accompanying it.
I'm betting that some of it is people waiting for the DSLite's release so I wouldn't be surprised if we get a surge in DS software now.
I think you're right about something being amiss here. Software drives hardware sales. That's the way it's always been, that's the way it's always going to be. What phantom software is driving PSP sales? Are people still buying it because it's a nice looking piece of plastic and it has good graphics? Is it an image thing? If it's not software, what the hell is it?
I'm gonna ask my friend why he bought the PSP. Maybe that will give me some insight, I can't wrap my head around this.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 13, 2006, 07:37:41 AM
Quote Originally posted by: TrueNerd I'm gonna ask my friend why he bought the PSP. Maybe that will give me some insight, I can't wrap my head around this.
I admit I've heard from a few people that they THOUGHT it was going to be the next great handheld when they bought it but they're still regretting the purchase to this very day.
However, I can't see that as being the reason so many people would be buying the thing when it's overpriced and there aren't even any games they intend to buy with it.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: vudu on June 13, 2006, 09:00:35 AM
It's all about the homebrew scene. And the ROM scene.
Hell, even I was considering picking one up prior to Nintendo's announcement of the Virtual Console.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 13, 2006, 09:16:45 AM
But the numbers still don't add up...
If that's really the reason, then hacking has become mainstream.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on June 13, 2006, 09:31:24 AM
Honestly, with the PSP I think it keeps selling because even though people don't use them very often, they try to justify thier purchase to a friend by showing off what their PSP can do. That friend thinks its cool and decides to get one for themselves one day, and the PSP gets put righ back on the shelf to collect dust once again.
I never see these things anywhere, because no one is using them in public. I have a friend that swears by his PSP and the movies that it plays, but I call him retarded, cause he only uses it at home and he has the movie on DVD already, and he only owns one game and never plays it. His PSP is collecting dust, but he always pushes for someone else to get one, because he has one and its the coolest thing ever and he uses it all the time :rolleyes:.
PSP is a status symbol, saying that you could afford one & are a "cool" gamer, but most of the people that I know that bought one never use, never take it anywhere and now regret having bought it for reasons stated before this.
They will all be converted to DS once I get my BLACK DS Lite, just like I converted them all to GC with my Panasonic Q and SSBM combo.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Kairon on June 13, 2006, 09:31:25 AM
I tend to believe that all those PSPs were bought, but they're collecting dust right now.
~Carmine M. Red Kairon@aol.com
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 13, 2006, 09:38:30 AM
They're still being bought at what some would consider an alarming rate.
It's like a market anomaly: the console is selling despite the fact that no one is buying any of the media that works with it, including UMD movies which are having TERRIBLE sales.
The real irony, if people are buying them for hacking purposes, is that Sony is releasing regular updates to close these security holes to stop the hacking.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on June 13, 2006, 09:48:53 AM
Did I mention that my friend owns 7 movies, 1 game & a 1GB MSDuo w/ no computer or local wifi access. So I know he isn't using it everyday, or more likely not at all.
I'm sure lots of people that did buy it saw a friend that was hacking the system(for free games) do it and decided to they would do it too, but then it became too much of a hassle and they never actually got it to work.
1 friend of mine use to use it as a really expensive mp3 player, which is also retarded since he payed about $180 for the PSP and $120 for the 1GB mem stick about 9 months ago. I'm sure he could have bought a multi GB iPod for around that price.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Arbok on June 13, 2006, 10:55:07 AM
Quote Originally posted by: BlackNMild2k1 ... is also retarded since he payed about $180 for the PSP and $120 for the 1GB mem stick about 9 months ago. I'm sure he could have bought a multi GB iPod for around that price.
Even cheaper; in fact, he could have even gotten a 4 GB Nano for $230 and still have been under that $300 price point:
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Smash_Brother on June 13, 2006, 12:21:51 PM
Doesn't the Nano also hang around your neck?
Regardless, I know for a goddamn FACT that the Nano is about 1/8th the size of the PSP.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on June 13, 2006, 05:42:10 PM
but was iPod at these prices 9 months ago? Even if they weren't I'm still sure an iPod would've been a better long time investment towards it actually being used for some productiive purpose till this very day.
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Athrun Zala on June 13, 2006, 06:33:45 PM
Quote Originally posted by: BlackNMild2k1 but was iPod at these prices 9 months ago? Even if they weren't I'm still sure an iPod would've been a better long time investment towards it actually being used for some productiive purpose till this very day.
the nano was more expensive, but the video was the same if I'm not mistaken (well, the same begining in oct when it was released....)
Title: RE:Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Avinash_Tyagi on June 13, 2006, 10:55:35 PM
Quote Originally posted by: VGrevolution Really though if PSP was keeping up with DS I wouldn't be surprised, it seems about every place I go to the PSP is right out in the open with TONS of accessories, yet NDS is jammed in a corner somewhere. If you were to judge a system's sucess by how visible and impressive its display is, then PSP would be stomping the heck out of NDS.
Don't companies pay for shelf space? So really all that says is Nintendo is cheap.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: KDR_11k on June 14, 2006, 04:40:50 AM
I've seen my first PSP owner today. Status symbol indeed, the thing was dangling from his neck despite fitting into the presumably huge pockets of his baggy jeans (with the belt roughly at his knees) and seemed to be nothing but an MP3 player to him. I don't expect reasonable purchasing decisions from someone who can't even decide that it may be a bad idea to run around with thick trousers and a pullover when it's 30+ degrees in the shades.
Title: RE: Finally, some SALES DATA...
Post by: Ceric on June 14, 2006, 05:32:32 AM
I do not think that companies "pay for Shelf Space" outright. If there is a demand then the bigger stores will carry it. Even if there isn't a demand the specialty stores will have it because there is a need for inventory. Yeah I'm sure there are indirect ways to buy more shelf space but I don't think you straight up buy shelf space or we see whenever a really huge launch happens suddenly all the shelfs for games is nothing but that system. Now Displays are another story. I'm pretty sure you can strike a deal to get those put up. But I think Shelf space is somewhat sacred.
