NPD (US) January 2012 Video Game sales

[garyopa]

Past month Industry Sales are below the level from... 2004?



January was surely a very low month for Video Game sales. Seems NPD is reporting they are below 2004 levels. XBOX 360 is the highest selling console with 270K units sold.

The market research company NPD has released its January 2012 sales report, and it looks like, overall, it was a pretty bad month for every console, as the Industry Sales are below the level from 2004.

Top selling games for January:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)
2. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks)
4. NBA 2K12 (Take 2 Interactive)
5. Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts)
6. Madden NFL 12 (Electronic Arts)
7. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo)
8. Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Activision Blizzard)
9. Zumba Fitness 2: Party Yourself (Majesco)
10. Saints Row: The Third (THQ)

The NPD group don't release sales numbers anymore, but we can see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Just Dance 3 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim keep selling 'pretty well'.

As for the Hardware, there are only estimations, but looks like XBOX 360 was the top selling console again, selling around 270k units.

Xbox 360: 270K (-29%) - 49% Console Hardware Sales Share

This means the Wii and PS3 sold 281K combined, which would be a massive drop from last year. For comparison, the Wii was at 319K and the PS3 at 267K, which comes out to 586K combined. This would put them at an aggregate 52% drop year over year.

PS3 and Wii selling only 281K combined is pretty low even for January. Because of this, looks like this month sales are below the level from 2004. Or, could be the NPD is getting faulty data?

Still, the January results are so poor that their validity should be questioned, says Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. From 2004 to 2011, January software sales have averaged $518 million, making this month's $355.9 million figure "just hard to digest," he says. "It also makes no sense that sales are below the level from 2004, when games were cheaper and the installed base of consoles was much lower. ... I don't know if the NPD is getting faulty data, but these numbers make no sense."

Even if the above statement is true, we have seen an overall and continuously decline in the VG Hardware sales for a while. I guess is already time for a new gen of consoles?

NEWS SOURCES: Sales of Video Games fall in January (via) USA Today and NeoGAF Forums

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for another news posting!

[billysastard]

i think that wii sales line might need a parachute (and an ambulancce on standy), nintendo better hope they get the wii u out pretty quickly.