January NPDs were released not too long ago with some shocking numbers as follows:

Hardware Numbers

1. Nintendo Wii - 274,000 
2. PLAYSTATION 3 - 269,000
3. PlayStation 2 - 264,000
4. Nintendo DS - 251,000 
5. Xbox 360 - 230,000
6. PlayStation Portable - 230,000

Software Numbers

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 330,900
2. Wii Play (Wii) - 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) - 239,600
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) - 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) - 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) - 144,100
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) - 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (DS) - 138,500
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) - 133,000

My comments and amateur analysis below.

Hardware numbers were surprising for the PS3 at face value, but there are possible explanations:

• Unexplainable, but predictable Wii shortages
• Surprising and incompetant XBOX 360 shortages
• Apparent NDS shortages
• Possible effect of the Warner Brothers Blu-ray announcement
• The PS2 sales are very impressive. Especially since the damn console still hasn’t reached the $99 MSRP point yet.

In the end, I’m impressed and surprised that the PS3 beat out the XBOX 360 for the first time ever in the United States market. I don’t believe it will continue the trend next month, though.

Software sales were surprising for me with the following:

• Super Mario Galaxy still in the top 10; I thought this title would have dropped off by now, but I guess new Wii owners are indeed buying awesome games.
• Burnout: Paradise did not debut as strongly as I thought it would, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that it debuted on January 22nd. Or perhaps the demo scared people off.
• Mario Party DS and Mario vs Sonic at the Olympic games should not have been that high. Curse the mini-games!
• PS3 software sales have not caught been great. The same goes with PSP software sales. Disappointing.
• XBOX 360 still very strong

Tags: burnout, call of duty, mario, Microsoft, nintendo, npd, sales
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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Entertainment News, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.