The Wiire

May's NPD: Rematch!
By Skylar Wilcox / June 12, 2008
NPD Group, a market research company that issues monthly sales figures for game systems and software, has released the numbers for May, and they look like the aftershocks from April's megaton releases.  Two of the top-selling games of the year so far, Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart Wii, came out at the tail end of April, and their sales predictably spilled over into May.  Wii Fit arrived to try to break them up, and was somewhat successful.  First, let's take a look at the hardware sales:
  • Nintendo Wii -- 675,100 (down 39K from April)
  • Nintendo DS -- 452,600 (up 38K)
  • PlayStation 3 -- 208,700 (up 22K)
  • PlayStation Portable -- 182,300 (down 10K)
  • Xbox 360 -- 186,600 (down 1K)
  • PlayStation 2 -- 132,700 (up 8K)
The Wii took the biggest dip out of any system, surprising given that it hosts a solid half of the top ten titles for the month.  The DS picked up the slack, which is pretty much the opposite of what happened last month.  The Xbox 360 took a slight hit, while the PS3 experienced the second-biggest jump after the DS.  The PSP tripped, but the PS2 was there to catch it for Sony.

In software, though, it's all Nintendo:
  1. Grand Theft Auto IV (360) -- 871,300
  2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) --787,400
  3. Wii Fit (Wii) -- 687,700
  4. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) -- 442,900
  5. Wii Play (Wii) -- 294,600
  6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) -- 171,100
  7. Iron Man (PS2) -- 130,600
  8. Guitar Hero III (Wii) -- 116,800
  9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) -- 107,000
  10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) -- 102,000
Microsoft again won the battle with the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV, but Nintendo won the war, with seven out of the top ten sellers on Nintendo systems.  Mario Kart Wii finished a strong second, as with last month, bringing Wii Fit along for the ride.  Grand Theft Auto IV for the PS3 got bumped down a notch from last month, but still managed to hold off Wii Play and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

In fact, with the exception of Wii Fit, the top half of the list looks identical to last month.  The bottom half is a bit more interesting.  Iron Man for PS2 sold a surprising amount, despite the game paling in comparison to the movie.  Guitar Hero III for Wii dropped a bit from last month, but remained the only version of the game in the top ten.  Call of Duty 4 dropped out of the top ten for the first month since its release; it was replaced by both versions of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, each of which had respectable sales for spinoff games.

Aside from Ninja Gaiden 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the usual hot-selling movie adaptations, expect to see a good half of these games return in June.  Watch for the numbers and analysis around this time next month.

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