Nintendo's handheld, Activision's shooter reign supreme on last month's hardware, software rankings--latter sells 8.4 million; US sales up 8 percent for best November on record.
Industry research firm the NPD Group has reported $2.95 billion in US game sales for the month of November, a 9 percent increase in overall sales of non-PC hardware, software, and accessories. Including PC games, the total was $2.99 billion, an 8 percent uptick over the same period the year prior.
"November sales represent the best November on record in terms of new physical retail sales. It bests November 2008 by roughly $30 million, and that time frame was at the height of the music/dance genre sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.
On the non-PC hardware side, sales were $1.08 billion, an increase of just 2 percent. And although NPD no longer releases its monthly hardware sales numbers, Microsoft and Nintendo were all too happy to oblige with their own figures. The Nintendo DS was once again the most popular platform in the land, selling 1.5 million units during the all-important month. In second place was the Xbox 360 with 1.37 million units, followed by the Wii with 1.2 million units. Sony had not released sales figures for the PlayStation 3 or PSP as of press time.
"The Xbox 360 was the best-selling console hardware system for the month, realizing an incredible 68 percent increase over last November," said Frazier.
The biggest increase in sales was in accessories, which includes both the Xbox 360's Kinect and the PlayStation 3s Move motion-sensing systems. Revenues in that category jumped 69 percent to $413.3 million dollars for the reporting period, which included Kinect's November 4 launch. During the 25 days following the peripheral's debut, some 2.5 million units were sold worldwide.
"The Xbox 360 Kinect was the best-selling accessory item in November," said Frazier. "With one month of sales, it's the top-selling accessory item in terms of dollar sales on a year-to-date basis."
Software sales rose just 4 percent to $1.46 billion, according to NPD. Given Call of Duty: Black Ops' $650 million debut week, it will likely surprise nobody that the game was the top software entry for November.
"Black Ops debuted as the best-selling game in its launch month (in history) with Black Ops selling 8.4 million units at retail in the US," said Frazier. "With only one month of sales, it has become the seventh best-selling game of all time, life-to-date." She went on to say that Black Ops accounted for 25 percent of all US game software units sold during November.
Rounding out NPD's top 10 was Ubisoft's stealth action game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in second and another Ubi title, Just Dance 2, coming in third. In fourth was Madden NFL, followed by the Xbox 360-exclusive Fable III and the Wii-only Donkey Kong Country Returns. In seventh was Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, followed by the PS3-only Gran Turismo 5. NBA 2K11 was in ninth place, with Wii Fit Plus bringing up the rear in the 10th slot.
NOVEMBER 2010 US GAME SALES
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total: $2.99 billion (+8%)
Non-PC total: $2.95 billion (+9%)
Non-PC hardware: $1.08 billion (+2%)
Non-PC software: $1.46 billion (+4%)
Accessories: $413.3 million (+69%)
TOP 10 GAMES
Title (Platforms) - Publisher
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, PC, DS) - Activision
2. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (360, PS3) - Ubisoft
3. Just Dance 2 (Wii) - Ubisoft
4. Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, WII, PS2, PSP) - Electronic Arts
5. Fable III (360) - Microsoft
6. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) - Nintendo
7 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3, 360, Wii, PC) - Electronic Arts
8. Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) - Sony Computer Entertainment America
9. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP, WII, PC) - 2K Sports
10. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - Nintendo
Heh heh.This is funny.Some troll is going around handing out thumbs down to little comments like "Oh look,Donkey Kong made it to 6th.Nice."(And it is by the way.) How in the world can you thumb down the observation of a fact?People are so funny.Ok.I'm ready for my thumb down!Hit me!
Well I don't quite know If this is meant to be good news or not... The whole Call of duty series has became more of a trend, people who haven't even played games know what they associate when someone says "cod" not a fish lol but a game they haven't played, basically what Im saying is alot of people are jumping on the cod bandwagon.
srsly ATVI should just start naming call of duty by the year, instead of giving it titles. COD2011 next november. It will break sales records until everyone hates it. (Research Tony Hawk Pro Skater/ Guitar Hero sales)
@tastyhalloween yes, they've nickled and dimed me into buying...one xbox. Which I still have. Which still works. Perfectly. gg
@toptom924 "not that black ops is bad but cod is starting to become the next spamed game" what do you mean by starting to?! It already is. :( Hey, I saw this great deal on ebay - CoD4, MW2, WaW - all for just 20 pounds (not each, 20 for all three of them). But then I realized that it'd be like buying the same game three times. Though I guess WaW stands out, but still, it is built on the same fundamentals. It sickens me to see how a once good video game series is getting milked just for the console crowd and sales.
@wargraymon Be careful when you say Europe buddy. If you hadn't noticed, it's the US and UK who are all obssessed about shooting Russians and Germans (they should give those countries a rest)... and obviously England prefers sports over everything else, which is weird because England is the fattest country in Europe. When it comes to gaming, some Slavic countries prefer RPGs. I come from Poland and classic Role-Playing Games are very popular there. Not saying that they don't like FPS at all, but you get what I mean.
@packers91 cause people are still getting the red ring. They have no eliminated the problem, but have slowed it down. So its still a problem. So till they prove its from original sales and not people having to buy a new one from a crashed console, I'll still say its crap. Which we know they never will, look at the huge hit they took back in nov after they locked out all the hacked consoles. Hint this is part of their sales...nickel and diming ya buddy.
please make MODERN WARFARE 3 ASAP to change this BLACK (B)OOPS. this is HEAVEN's for CAMPERS. this game is the best of the WORST. this is a BREAKDOWN for COD or SHOOTING GENRE full with FAULTY. DISCONNECTED due to TRANSMISSION ERROR. the MP STUCK (WAITING MORE PLAYERS to BEGIN MATCH, even the player allready BALANCED 18/18 for the GROUND WAR i.e "THIS SERVER ERROR"). BLINKING SCREEN.too small size enemy graphics. too many BIG ROOMs.so that every one can shoot at you.SLOW SERVER uncomfort weapon sistem. difficult to use the EQUIPMENT like the C4, JAMMER, motion sensor, etc (TOO MANY BUTTON HAVE to push) not like MW2.please make MODERN WARFARE 3 as quick as possible. the PERKS have a difficult CHALLENGE to upgrade. useless weapons. scavenger perk cannot reload/resupply RPG or 2ndary weapons or equipment like C4 / claymore. PLEASE FORWARD this MESSAGE to ACTIVISION. luckily the COD:BLACK (B)ooPs was given FREE from my PSN FRIEND. PRAISE LORD JESUS becos HE is GENEROUS to me, dont want me to loose my money for buying CRAPS. I DONT EVEN FINISH THE SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN. is it score 9.0 fitted this game?
@minhas27 I think you need to read the article on GT5 shipping 5.5 mln units wordlwide, Im quite sure in units Sold worldwide, GT5 did better than NFS.
you got to admit. For being released right before thanksgiving, Gran Turismo's spot on NPD is very impressive. if the game really was this flaw of a racer, do you really think it would be there? my biggest concern is Goldeneye on the wii. its pretty much EXACTLY as i expected. Because when you look at a game like that and then Donkey Kong's place on the NPD's, it becomes evident. both a very good games but then, one is a Rated T shooter and the other is kid-friendly adventure. Activision made a mistake that, despite my huge gripe with them, i didnt want to happen. That mistake was releasing on the wii to score a profit on a top-tier name shooter. The Wii is forever cemented as being a kid friendly, casual/family gaming system that is not the home for action games or shooters of any kind. Hopefully, we'll get an announcement of a GOLDENEYE for the PS3/360, where it shouldve been in the first place. Also, it goes to show you, its not about name to a console, its about the gaming audience. if the people who spoke of the great GOLDENEYE memories and wanted a remake are primarily on the PS3/360, why release it exclusively for the system you did not hear it from? to gain on a profit? that the choice the devs made for this game and this is where it landed them.
Firstly,I agree with white_wind . I live in the US and it starts to get difficult to find a decent game for your 360 if you don't want an FPS or a racer. I DO plan to get Portal 2 for it,as that is definitely GotY 2011 material right there. As for all the rest,I am glad my favorite entertainment medium is doing better,and I can't wait to see what they do with all the revenue they got from it.*cough*3DS!*cough*
not that black ops is bad but cod is starting to become the next spamed game aka as guitar hero games but they dont get the respect cod gets which sucks but anyway i think we all know a new cod will come out next year and the year after that and the year after that to be honest its getting repetative and just well ....boring
sadly it seems all there is out there is fps and it seems that's all that the u.s and europe ever play. look on the black ops global map, u.s. and europe are all lit white. unfortunally most japanese games graphicly aren't all up there, even the japanese publishers admited that they're lagging behind and what they they do publish that have great graphics usually have sucky game play
@tastyhalloween stop using arguments from 2006, they've all but eliminated the RRoD in their consoles over the past 3-4 years. Why is it so hard for sony fanboys to accept the fact the 360 is legitimately selling more than the ps3
Most are Christmas releases so there ought to be a spike upwards. What will be telling is if it is maintained into 2011. The number one game on the list is a bit of a no-show though. While it may have sold well, it also shows how game developers are STILL releasing games that are poorly tested for bugs but pushed out the door anyway. That fact does NOT hold well with true gamers and will eventually impact these companies bottom line.
This is good news. Topping November of 2008 is great. Hopefully the industry keeps going up. Our beloved hobby seems on the right track and is healthy once again. Kudos to everyone involved :)
sigh I miss old days when ppl used to buy good games . good games from 2 to 10 not included in the comment
im ashamed to admit i own a copy of black ops... and its actually gathering dust because i played it for an hour and never played it again! BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY 2!!!!!
They had another article about this type of thing for Thanksgiving weekend alone. But at the end they had this data: In that article they showed as of it's printing the DS sold over 41 million units,the Wii just over 30 million,360 catching up at 21 million,PSP lagging 24 million units behind its competitor at 17 million,and PS3 bringing up the rear at 13 million units sold.These are the figures for the US install base as of the date of the report. Great job Nintendo. Nice work Microsoft! Sony......Step it up if you would. Here is the name of the article if you want to check it out. Nintendo sells 1.5M systems over Thanksgiving
Call of Duty: Black Ops... Well a year ago people were crazy about Modern Warfare 2, you hear nothing about that game now. Let's see how fondly people remember "the seventh best-selling game of all time" in another year.
@killdamn I think his argument was that GT5 wasn't good enough to beat out a multiplat game even though it was optimized for ps3, and had a ridiculously long dev. cycle. Truth be told, rubbish games do make the top 10. And he's right; GT5 has some fantastic qualities, but overall it is rubbish. Literally rubbish, they even recycled old cars. I should mention that I happen to enjoy GT5, but that is despite it's quality. I also happen to like Deadly Premonition and Nier.Both those games are 7's, as well, which do alot of bad, and some really good things.
@Steelmouth we all know why xbox out sells everyone. They crash so much you have to keep replacing them, then they only sold big harddrives in new consoles, so you had to buy a whole new console just for a 250 hdd. Then they crashed all the xboxs that were hacked. They are are top selling all the time cause they make rubbish easily hacked consoles, with as least amount of goods in them, just to make you pump out another 200 for one. Seriously, how many have you owned? 6? 7? 10?....
@minhas27 NFS is a massive name AND is multiplatform you flid. It's bound to get more sales.
I love how ac brotherhood got such high sales, that means ubisoft could (over time) become the next activision.
That CoD is the 7th best selling US game of all time stuff, where do they come up with that? Seventh best on home consoles this generation maybe, but not seventh of all time. The Wii alone has six titles that has sold more than that. Even if you exclude console pack-ins like SMB, Duck Hunt, Super Mario World, Tetris, Wii Sports, & Wii Sports Resort the only way you'd get there is by excluding all peripheral pack-ins as well like Wii Fit, Wii Play, and even Mario Kart Wii because of that little plastic holder, and still it would be in 10th place, not seventh.
@minhas27 Truly it is a rubish game when it makes it to the top 10 list and not every PS3 owner likes Gran Turismo in general. Your argument was...?
5 years of making that rubish game ps3 fail even it can not beat need for speed hot pursuit
It's surprising that Frazier would say that the 360 is the best-selling console hardware system, when the DS is actually a console hardware system as well. It's a handheld CONSOLE, while the 360 is a home console, as per definition. It's nitpicky, I know, but relevant. Nothing against the 360, I congratulate MS on the huge numbers.
I just got Brotherhood yesterday and it is stellar! Played a bit of multiplayer to and I it was so awesomely intense. Brotherhood FTW!
I love Assassin's Creed. One of those few games that makes you feel cool and powerful while taking out your enemies.
Honestly I've heard almost nothing good about Black Ops from my friends. I wonder how many of those were returned or sold to Gamestop.
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