Topic: NPD: Nintendo Back on Top in October

[WindyMan]

Wii and DS lead hardware sales, industry up 73% from the same period last year.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=14824

 After much ado about withholding data from the public, the NPD Group has decided to continue its monthly practice of releasing hardware and software sales figures.  For the four-week period that made up the October reporting period, here is data for hardware sold.    

October 2007 Hardware Sales
 Wii - 519k
 Nintendo DS -  458k
 Xbox 360 - 366k
 PSP - 286k
 PlayStation 2 - 184k
 PlayStation 3 – 121k    

The Wii is once again back up on top of the charts, selling through around 130,000 units a week.  Nintendo has reclaimed the pole position after the Xbox 360 took the September leg with the launch of Halo 3.    

Speaking of Halo 3, here are the software sales charts for the same four-week October period.    

October 2007 Top Ten Software Sales
 Halo 3 (Xbox 360) – 433,800
 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Xbox 360) – 383,200
 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Wii) – 286,300
 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (PS2) – 271,100
 Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) – 262,800
 Wii Play w/Remote – (Wii) – 239,700
 The Orange Box (Xbox 360) – 238,400
 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Game Only) (PS2) – 231,700
 FIFA Soccer 08 (PS2) – 129,700
 Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (DS) – 116,900    

Microsoft's juggernaut is still top of the charts, but only by technicality.  In reality, the big winner of October's software race was Activision, which sold 1.4 million copies of Guitar Hero III across all platforms in a mere six days.  The Wii version did quite well for itself, especially considering it was only available in a bundle.  Wii Play is still on the charts and still selling over 200k a month, and two other Nintendo titles are sticking around in the top ten.    

Because of games like Guitar Hero and the continued explosive sales of current hardware, the video game industry as a whole took in $1.1 billion in sales this October, up 73% from last October.  Remember that October 2006 was the final month before the Wii and PlayStation 3 launched in North America, so the pre-launch lull could explain such a significant yearly increase.  It should be interesting to see how next month's data stacks up against the launch-filled period that was one year ago.

[that Baby guy]

I think the most important detail is that the Wii version of Guitar Hero III sold more than the PS2 version.  Considering the guitar install base already existing from prior versions on the PS2 and 360, that's no small feat.

[shammack]

Except the combined totals of the PS2 bundle and the game-only package are over 500,000, far more than the Wii version.