December and 2007 Video Game Sales - Incredible

Everyone knew the numbers were going to be good; it was just a matter of how good.  That, and how long it would take to see them.   Usually, it takes a few weeks to tabulate year end results.  In that time, expectations were building.  Today, NPD Group released their December and Year-End Sales results for the U.S. video game industry.   The results took November’s stellar returns and raised them by one more. More records were broken.

Total U.S. hardware and software sales for 2007 rose 43% over 2006 to set a new record at $17.94b.  December contributed $4.82b to that tally (a 28% annual increase).

In the individual categories, December hardware sales were up 17% to $1.83b.  The Nintendo DS dominated with 2.47m units sold.  The Wii came in second with 1.35m giving Nintendo the victory for both consoles and portables.   Finishing lower, however, wasn’t without consolation prize.  Month over month all the platforms performed extremely well….easily besting their prior month’s results.  Both the PS3 (798k units vs 466k last month) and the Xbox 360 (1.26m vs 770k) sold extremely well.

For 2007, in the hardware category, industry spending was up 54%.  Nintendo’s DS and Wii again finished first and second with 8.5m and 6.29m units respectively.  The Xbox was a respectable third with 4.62m units sold.  The PS3, gaining with late momentum, finished  in 6th but still sold 2.56m units.

In software, Microsoft took the annual trophy for a single title.  Halo 3, in just a few months (was released in September) proved the importance of a platform exclusive title selling 4.82m games.  Nintendo had similar success with their Wii Play Remote Bundle (4.12m).  Activision did extremely well with its Guitar Hero platform.   The game, summed up across multiple platforms generated $820m.  For software, December gross sales were in at $2.37b, up 36% year over year. 

Annually, software yielded $8.64b in revenue, up 34% over last year.  Console games accounted for the vast majority of that ($6.64b), portable game software yielded about $2b in sales.

Accessories didn’t fare badly either.  Annual accessory sales totals were $2.26b, up 52% over 2006.

The totals starting with annual, followed by monthly, by the numbers:

2007 Annual U.S. Gaming Sales (Gain over 2006/ %)
•Total: $17.94b (43%)
•Hardware: $7.04b (54%)
•Console Hardware: $5.12b (73)
•Portables: $1.92b (19%)
•Software: $8.6b (34%)
•Console Software: $6.64 (39%)

Hardware Sales (Year) (Lifttime)
Nintendo DS: 8.50m (17.65m LTD)
Wii: 6.29m (7.38m LTD)
Xbox 360: 4.62 m (9.15m LTD)
PlayStation 2: 3.97m (41.12m LTD)
PlayStation Portable: 3.82m (10.47m LTD)
PlayStation 3: 2.56m (3.25m LTD)

Top 10 Games (Title (platform, maker) units)

1. Halo 3 (360, Microsoft) - 4.82m
2. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Wii, Nintendo) - 4.12m
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360, Activision) - 3.04m
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2, Activision) - 2.72m
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo) - 2.52m
6. Pokémon Diamond (DS, Nintendo) - 2.48m
7. Madden NFL 08 (PS2, Electronic Arts) - 1.9m
8. Guitar Hero II (PS2, Activision) - 1.89m
9. Assassin’s Creed (360, Ubisoft) - 1.87m
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii, Nintendo) - 1.82m

December U.S. Monthly Results (Gain over November/ %)

Total: $4.82 billion (28%)
Hardware: $1.83 billion ( 17%)
Console Hardware $1.3 billion: ( 21%)
Portables Hardware: $525,700 ( 7%)
Software: $2.37 billion ( 36%)
Console Software $1.8 billion: ( 47%)
Portable Game Software: $574,900 (11%)

December Hardware Sales (prior month)
•Nintendo DS: 2.47m (1.53m)
•Wii: 1.35m (981k)
•Xbox 360: 1.26m (366k)
•PlayStation 2: 1.1m (496k)
•PlayStation Portable: 1.06m (567k)
•PlayStation 3: 797.6k (466k)

December Top 10 Software (Game (platform) Maker) units
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat (360) Activision - 1.47m
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) Nintendo - 1.40m
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) Activision - 1.25m
4. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Wii) Nintendo - 1.08m
5. Assassin’s Creed (360) Ubisoft - 893,700
6. Halo 3 (360) Microsoft - 742,700
7. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (DS) Nintendo - 659,500
8. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) Electronic Arts - 655,200
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (360) Activision - 624,600
10. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) Sega - 613,000

For comparative data, NPD’s data from the past few months can be found by clicking the names of the month as follows:
• February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November

Comments

[Brian Croner]

PS3 flopped hard, right there in black and white

[Tom B]

"PS3 flopped hard, right there in black and white"

Given that HD DVD just flopped, and PS3 will be with us for some time, I expect their ultimate number of units sold will exceed XBox.

But, wii is the REAL winner.