November 2008 NPD sales: Holy crap Wii Edition.

[Kayos]

November is pretty much the largest month for video game sales.

This year Nintendo came out the winner. Out selling it's rivals more than 2 to 1 with 2 million units being sold. This is a huge accomplishment for them as last year they've sold 980,000 units.

Nintendo's response to the numbers:

“Nintendo’s record-breaking sales demonstrate that consumers are looking for the best value not only among video games, but also among all entertainment options,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Shoppers are looking for gifts that can be enjoyed by the whole family, and Nintendo provides an incomparable range of experiences that gets the whole family involved.”

Four games made for Nintendo systems placed in the top 10 U.S. best-sellers for November, representing the diversity of people who play Nintendo games. These included Wii Play™ (for casual and lapsed players) at No. 3 with more than 796,000 sold, Wii Fit™ (for new gamers) at No. 4 with more than 697,000 sold, Mario Kart™ Wii (for both core and casual payers) at No. 5 with nearly 637,000 sold and Wii Music™ (for everyone) placed at No. 9 with more than 297,000 sold, following its long-tail trend.

Full Nintendo press release here.

The Xbox 360 also was a big winner this year, outselling the PS3 2 to 1. The price cut really paid off for them this year as they beat out there previous record of selling 700,000 units at this time last year.

Microsoft's response to the numbers:

November NPD results are in and Xbox 360 highlights include:
· Most successful November for Xbox 360 in U.S. with record games, console sales and online momentum (this follows the recent announcement of a record November in Europe)
· Continuing to widen its installed base lead over the PS3
· Outsold PS3 and PS2 combined
· Record-setting software attach rate leads the industry, now at 8.1

The Xbox 360 continues to sell at record levels this holiday season, registering the biggest Black Friday and most successful November in its history. Xbox 360 sold a record number of consoles for the month of November at 836,000 units. (November NPD data)

With $298 million in third-party game sales in November, the Xbox 360 has generated more revenue at retail for third-party publishers than the PS3 and Wii combined this generation. (November NPD data)

In addition to a 3:1 console sales lead over the PS3 during the Black Friday weekend, Xbox 360 finished the month of November with more than a 2:1 sales advantage over PS3. (November NPD data and Microsoft internal data) This momentum is happening around the world as well; Xbox 360 was the fastest-growing console in Europe for the month of November, with sales up 124 percent year-over-year, versus 43 percent for Wii and three percent for PS3. (Microsoft Internal data)

Full Microsoft press release here

PS3, being the weakest this year actually sold only 300k units. They've actually sold less this year than last year which only reaffirms the fact that it is over priced and in need of a real solid price drop. Not being able to out sell your previous year in a vital month which has holiday sales is a huge loss for them. Sony's spin doctors have of course combined all Playstation systems together to state that they have sold over a combined 1 million units but individual sales were just ugly. PS3 sales are what matter Sony, that's your bread and butter.

Sony's response to the numbers:

PlayStation Brand Continues Strong Sales Momentum Into the Holiday Season; PS3 Hardware Sales Grow 60% Year-to-Date

Total PlayStation Hardware Unit Sales in November 2008 Top 1 Million

The PlayStation brand began the holiday season by posting solid sales at retail across its three platforms, with more than 1 million hardware units sold in November 2008, a 93% growth from the October 2008, according to NPD.

PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) has continued its strong momentum during the holiday season with 378,071 hardware units sold in November, representing an increase of almost 100% from October. From January to November 2008, more than 2.8 million PS3s have been sold in the U.S., representing a year-to-date hardware sales growth of more than 60%.

Fueled by an unmatched holiday line-up of blockbuster first and third-party titles, more that 3,552,456 software units were sold for PS3 in November, representing a year-to-date growth of 150%.

Sony's full press release here.

Here are the final numbers:

• Wii - 2,040,000
• Nintendo DS - 1,570,000
• Xbox 360 - 836,000
• PSP - 421,000
• PlayStation 3 - 378,000
• PlayStation 2 - 206,000