PS3 Beats Xbox 360, but Wii Outsells All

Sony eeks out another win over Microsoft's Xbox 360 console in the month of May, while Nintendo reigns supreme with Wii and DS sales.


PS3 Beats Xbox 360, but Wii Outsells All

NPD figures for the month of May show PlayStation 3 outsold Xbox 360. A mere 22k separated the two consoles, hardly putting a dent in Microsoft's huge lead over the battle for total sales. 208,000 PS3 consoles were purchased last month and 186,000 Xbox 360s were snatched up by gamers. To date, 19 million Xbox 360s have sold worldwide compared against 13 million PlayStation 3s.

Unsurprisingly, both consoles were obliterated by Wii at 675,000. Even Nintendo DS performed better than either PS3 or Xbox 360, generating more sales than both consoles combined with 452,000 handhelds sold. Nintendo pushed through over a million game systems during May, which nearly doubles PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP sales combined. Counting PlayStation 2 sales and Nintendo still boasted larger sales.

Hand-in-hand with Wii and DS were solid game sales. Seven of the top ten selling games in May were on either platform. Mario Kart Wii took second place with 787,000 copies in a photo-finish behind the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV with 871k. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of GTA IV were the only games to make the list for those consoles.

Game Console Choice Shows Generation Gap

How much time do gamers spend playing Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3? A Nielsen consumer report takes a crack at the answer with a new technology called "polling."


Game Console Choice Shows Generation Gap

According to Nielsen respondents (via IGN), gamers between the ages of 10 and 26 spend most their time playing Xbox 360 by 63 percent, followed by 25 percent total console time playing Wii, and 12 percent playing PlayStation 3.

Conversely, gamers 27 and older spend a majority of their console time on PS3 by 52 percent, followed by Wii with 28 percent, and Xbox 360 at 20 percent.

In both demographics, both Xbox 360 and PS3 were played more consistently than Wii and for longer periods of time, supporting the widespread belief that Nintendo's latest console is lacking in deep, entrenching games.

In any case, suffice it to say that gamers love consoles.

Wii Expected to Beat Xbox 360 U.S. Sales in May

With Nintendo's 714,200 units sold in April it would need to sell only 500,000 consoles this month to surpass Microsoft's self-imposed milestone


Wii Expected to Beat Xbox 360 U.S. Sales in May

It appears as though the Wii will surpass the Xbox 360 in North America a bit earlier than expected, as Nintendo announced last week that 9.5 million units have sold in the U.S. alone since launch.

The announcement puts a new light on Microsoft's peculiar chest-thumping press release from earlier in the week, when that company said it had reached an arbitrary 10 million unit sold boundary and would therefore "win" the console war. With Nintendo's 714,200 units sold in April, according to NPD, it would need to sell only 500,000 consoles this month to surpass Microsoft's self-imposed milestone, in less time. The Xbox 360 launched a year before the Wii or Sony's PlayStation 3 console.

A total of 188,000 Xbox 360s were sold in April, meaning that Nintendo would need only sell approximately 688,000 units in May to equal its rival's numbers. WiiFit also launches this month, and many analysts believe the balance board peripheral it is bundled with will inflate Nintendo's sales number even more. The console outsold all non-Nintendo systems in April, combined, according to NPD.

Overall, hardware sales were healthy at US$426 million, which was up 26% from $339 million in April 2007.

source: www.pcworld.com

Wii Outsells Xbox360, PS3 in March

Super Smash Bros. Brawl boosted Wii sales last month, according to the NPD Group.


Wii Outsells Combined Xbox 360, PS3 Sales in March

Super Smash Bros. Brawl boosted Wii sales to abnormal heights last month, according to official console ware bean counter, the NPD Group.

"Across hardware, software, and accessories, the Wii contributed the most to total industry sales, representing 31% of total industry dollars for the month," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

"Super Smash Brothers Brawl along with a greater supply of inventory helped the Wii to capture the highest single month unit sales of any platform outside the holiday timeframe," she added.

As far as hardware numbers go, Nintendo sold 720,000 Wiis last month; more than double that of combined Xbox 360 and PS3 sales, and almost enough to match the combined sales of all other consoles when including PS2.

The Nintendo DS was the second best-selling system in March with 698,000 units sold, followed by the PSP at 297,000 units, the Xbox 360 with 262,000, PS3 at 257,000, and the PS2 bringing up the rear with 216,000 units sold.

"Nintendo systems represented 58 percent of all video game hardware sold in March in the United States," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo's VP of sales and marketing. "We expect our momentum to continue with big upcoming game launches like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit."

On the software side, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the top-selling game in the U.S. last month at 2.7 million copies sold. Other top-sellers included Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (360), Army of Two (360), Wii Play, God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP), Guitar Hero III (Wii), MLB 2K8 (360), Call of Duty 4 (360), and Army of Two (PS3) in that order.

"All platforms, aside from the PS2, showed significant increases when compared with March 2007," concluded Frazier. "The industry realized great growth last year and so far this year, that momentum is carrying through."