
The NPD numbers for April have arrived, and things are looking good for Microsoft ... depending on how you look at it. Microsoft managed to sell 174,000 Xbox 360s in the month of April, more than doubling the 82,000 PS3s sold (incidentally, the Game Boy Advance sold 84,000). If you buy Microsoft's interpretation of the console war -- as in: our competition is the PS3, period -- then the Xbox 360 is kicking ass. Still, Sony and Nintendo have something to smile about, as the PSP, PS2, Wii, and DS all outsold the Xbox 360 in April. It's worth noting though, that the gap between the Xbox 360 and PS2 is significantly smaller than it was in
March. It will be interesting to see if the revelation of
Halo 3's
release date will have an effect on Xbox 360 sales.
- Nintendo DS: 471K (10.9 million total)
- Nintendo Wii: 360K (2.5 million total)
- Sony PlayStation 2: 194K (38.2 million total)
- Sony PSP: 183K (7.4 million total)
- Microsoft Xbox 360: 174K (5.4 million total)
- Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 84K (35.7 million total)
- Sony PlayStation 3: 82K (1.3 million total)
- Nintendo Gamecube: 13K (11.7 million total)
- Microsoft Xbox: N/A
[Via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-18-2007 @ 10:58AM
TheBigFatJ said...
You can put a positive spin on 174K unit sold, but it's still not good. At 174K units per month you'd sell about 2 million per year, which is wretched.
Why are 360 sales slowing down so much? Shouldn't they be increasing as the library grows? Microsoft doesn't have the luxury of relying on other regions: they're not selling in Japan and selling poorly outside of the US.
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5-18-2007 @ 11:04AM
Bravo6 said...
Why did Sony even bother with a PS3? Maybe they should have just stuck with the PS2!
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5-18-2007 @ 11:13AM
J.Goodwin said...
Judging 360 sales by April is not a good strategy.
To start, April tends to be one of the worst months of the year for console sales in general. Additionally, like all retail ventures, a good half to 3/4 of console sales happen in the November and December holiday season.
Wii has a good start. But PS3 and 360 are playing a completely different game here. They need consistent console sales to increase their install base over time, they need to reduce component costs on hardware, and they need to sell a solid string of titles throughout the year.
Nintendo on the other hand makes money on it's hardware, and just has to push out as many units as they can and ensure that there is the public perception that the console is both hard to find and much sought after by non-traditional gaming audiences.
Nintendo could care less whether they ever sell another game to a casual gamer. If they get two or three games over the life of the console, then Nintendo wins at the game it's playing.
Sony and Microsoft are playing for much higher stakes, their consoles cost more, the amount invested in R&D costs more, the games themselves are more expensive to make and can be either massive hits or spectacular money losing failures. This is something that could be a make or break for the console business of either company.
Nintendo still has it's old playing card mindset. They make money on every package they sell, they sell at a low price, and they sell to a wide base. They aren't in the video games / media industry, they're in the children's game industry, looking to expand their base.
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5-18-2007 @ 11:17AM
Chappy said...
Guys, remember this is May. The numbers will go up significantly during the Holiday season for all consoles. These numbers only tell us the relative sales rates; you can't extrapolate annual or total sales from this.
It's good news because 360 > PS3 and the PS2 gap is narrowing. A larger market share should translate to more games down the line.
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5-18-2007 @ 11:20AM
dancingtosirens said...
@3
Lets take a moment to think that maybe you are right, just for hypothetical argument.
If thats the case, then their trading card childrens game mindset is kicking everyone elses ass.
I wouldn't penalize Nintendo for doing what they've been doing well for the last 100+ years.
But this isn't a Nintendo blog, yeah?
I want to see both Xbox and PS3 sell more. By August Im sure both consoles will be selling much more.
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5-18-2007 @ 11:24AM
TheBigFatJ said...
@3
What does Nintendo have to do with it? The Xbox 360 should be doing a lot better.
I suspect people are reluctant, in part, because of the massive failure rates observed with the 360. It's unbelievable to think that people should have to trade their console in 3 or 4 or 5 times throughout the first year and a half.
Microsoft really needs to get their QA sorted out. Did you buy a Microsoft force-feedback wheel for Forza 2? For some reason, a huge percentage of those are misaligned -- something that could easily be fixed with higher quality components and decent QA at the factory.
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5-18-2007 @ 11:47AM
jimhuf said...
Im just baffled by the number of people still buying the ps2. I had one and it was a great console/dvd player but it got to the point where i was buying 1 game a year (pro evolution) so i sold it when i got my 360.
Saying that its probably the japs because sonys no doubt releasing a shed load of games over there that never see the light of day in the UK.
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5-18-2007 @ 11:50AM
Jonah Falcon said...
PS3 owners can take heart it's outselling the GameCube at least.
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5-18-2007 @ 11:51AM
Jonah Falcon said...
"Im just baffled by the number of people still buying the ps2."
Guitar Hero II bundleware (PS2 + GH2) for $130.
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5-18-2007 @ 12:34PM
ben w said...
im holding out 4 65nm cos ill have missed the halo 3 beta if i buy 1 online (what I want to do)
also Chappy said
It's good news because 360 > PS3 and the PS2 gap is narrowing. A larger market share should translate to more games down the line.
a larger market share for PS3 if the gap is narrowing
that means less money for 360 games if they have 2 buy ps3 games 2 so less games
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5-18-2007 @ 12:40PM
incrediblebulk92 said...
Nintendo must be doing something right. I mean 84,000 Gameboy Advances sold? I thought every man and his dog had one of those things. All these sales can't be coming from Japan. Doesn't the DS play GB Advance games? Have any games been released for the advance in the last few months? Maybe there are just thousands of mothers buying the wrong Nintendo hand held for their children... Man thats strange
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5-18-2007 @ 12:54PM
smak said...
shouldn't the title be, PS*2* still on top?
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5-18-2007 @ 12:55PM
smak said...
ah crap nevermind... i'm retarded.
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5-18-2007 @ 1:17PM
recon said...
Now i might be wrong but the xbox360 has sold more than 5.4 million consoles. i am pretty sure they hit 10 million this year because majornelsos blog i think posted about that in febuary, maybe it was a different source. Also i think that 5 million number is the number of live accounts because i remember seeing that exact same number somewhere else.
Recon
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5-18-2007 @ 1:18PM
recon said...
and when i say 10 million i mean total
recon
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5-18-2007 @ 1:39PM
Crazy Nut BE said...
Lol, so GBA > PS3
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5-18-2007 @ 1:53PM
Crazy Nut BE said...
Hey recon, they have indeed sold more than 10 million consoles, but the 5.4 million is the number of consoles sold in America. The remaining 4.6 million were probably sold in other parts of the world.
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5-18-2007 @ 5:33PM
Daz said...
I look forward to the sales figures for the month Halo 3 arrives compared to the month Little Big Planet arrives. In my opinion they are the two games that will make people buy a new console. Why on earth Sony didn't have LBP ready for launch is beyond me!
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5-18-2007 @ 8:05PM
h0mi said...
April #s wouldve gone down due to the Elite announcement. But fact is, the 360 is still too expensive. I'm surprised the Wii sold as many as it did because it seemed sold out everywhere... how did 400k people find them to buy them? heh.
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5-18-2007 @ 8:07PM
Tom said...
To give you some perspective on how much GoW influenced worldwide sales, check this out:
Q4 2005 1.5 million units
Q1 2006 1.7 million units
Q2 2006 1.8 million units
Q3 2006 0.9 million units
**Q4 2006 4.4 million units**
Q1 2007 0.5 million units
LOL!
[source:wikipedia]
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