October software rebounds on NBA 2K11 - NPD
By
Tom Magrino
2K Sports' annual basketball sim boosts software sales to positive gains, but overall industry sales slip 4% to $1.07B; Fallout: New Vegas on 360 top software SKU with 692,000.
2010's game industry sales contractions have officially carried over into October. Today, the NPD Group released its October 2010 US retail sales report, and the results show a 4 percent year-over-year decline in total industry sales. New console, portable, and PC game sales combined with hardware and accessory sales to bring in $1.07 billion.
October's declines can primarily be attributed to a substantial shrinkage in the console and handheld market. Though NPD no longer issues unit sales figures, the industry stat-tracking firm did say that console and handheld hardware sales contracted 26 percent during the month to $280 million. According to NPD, the DS topped the hardware sales chart during the month, but the Xbox 360 was the only system to grow its sales over last October.
As of press time, Microsoft is the only hardware manufacturer to promote its system's performance during the month, saying the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in October with 325,000 consoles sold. The software giant noted that the Xbox 360 is now officially the best-selling console in the US thus far in 2010, having sold 3.5 million units to date. (The handheld DS remains the best-selling hardware in 2010.)
The software side of the story could be considered a happier one, even if October's figures fell well shy of analysts rosy growth projections. New console and hardware sales accounted for $605 million of the month's total, a 6 percent rise from last year.
Capitalizing on EA Sports' decision to bench NBA Elite 11, 2K Sports took home the sales crown for top-selling multiplatform title in October with NBA 2K11. In fact, sports titles proved to be the most popular genre on the chart, with FIFA Soccer 11, Madden NFL 11, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 securing the eighth, ninth, and 10th slots.
Bethesda Softworks has already touted Fallout: New Vegas' 5 million-units-shipped milestone, and NPD also declared the game a sales winner. Achieving second place on the multiplatform chart, New Vegas also boasted the top-selling single SKU title during the month, with the Xbox 360 version selling 679,000 units, according to NPD.
EA's Medal of Honor was the third best-selling game during the month, followed by fellow October releases of Fable III (fourth), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (fifth), and Just Dance 2 (seventh). Rounding out the list was September's chart-topper, Halo: Reach, for the Xbox 360.
The dramatic rise and fall of the rhythm game genre has played a large role in the continued year-over-year US game industry sales declines. As such, NPD specifically called out the performance of this year's biggest new entry in the genre, Rock Band 3.
"Rock Band 3 was the 15th best-selling game at the title level (across platforms) for the month of October," commented NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "Note that this title was launched on Oct. 26, which only represents a few days in our October sales data. Based on solid reviews, this game has the potential to perform well over the holidays."
OCTOBER 2010 US GAME SALES
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total: $1.07 billion (-4%)
Non-PC total: $1.03 billion (-4%)
Non-PC hardware: $280 million (-26%)
Non-PC software: $605 million (+6%)
Accessories: $142 million (+18%)
TOP 10 GAMES
Title (Platforms) - Publisher
1. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP, WII, PC) - 2K Sports
2. Fallout: New Vegas (360, PS3, PC) - Bethesda Softworks
3. Medal of Honor (360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts
4. Fable III (360) - Microsoft
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (360, PS3, WII, PC, DS) - LucasArts
6. Halo: Reach (360) - Microsoft
7. Just Dance 2 (WII) - Ubisoft
8. FIFA Soccer 11 (PS3, 360, WII, PS2, PSP, DS, PC) - Electronic Arts
9. Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, WII, PS2, PSP) - Electronic Arts
10. WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 (PS3, 360, PS2, WII, PSP) - THQ
By
Tom Magrino
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
60 comments
uhm where to download the nba 2k11 v1.2 patch for ps3? or is an automatic upadate when you connect your ps3 online... HELP
@organbank Actually they're catering to a certain age group that likes splosions and shiny things so they don't really need to bother with all that morality and common sence stuff.
I wonder how many copies NBA 2K11 sold if Fallout 3 sold 679K in October. Must have sold very well, which is good. The game is awesome. BlackOps should be on top for November. XBox 360 owns US Market. It's going to stay that way for awhile. With Kinect a huge success and another price drop coming for all XBox hardware next year, they have no play to go, but up.
Let's see generic shooters, and so called 'AAA' titles that are rentals at best. Can't wait for the current gaming industry to go belly up and then we get new indie developers/publishers, new IPs and actully fun games to play. The whole list is made up of boring generic games and they wonder why sales are going downhill. It is called BOREDOM you ****ing moronic publishers. If you release the same generic crap every year, most sensible gamers on a budget will not buy it. How hard is that to understand?
Oh, so many franchises and sequels on this list. In fact, all of them are. And all with 2K11 at the top, I'm a little surprised to say, actually.
@ali-ali-1411 Releasing new IPs this time of year is very difficult when you are competing with numerous sequels to critically acclaimed franchises. I liked Vanquish, I was hoping it would be more of a success on the sales front.
They set out to crush their competition (NBA LIVE/Elite) and they literally did. I just hope that they dont get complacent next year after making the best basketball ever created
Ten years ago, videogame sale statistics weren't even looked at. I say we follow tradition and stop posting monthly articles about it. Instead, I'm inviting you all to my place for a Tekken tournament, Black Ops deathmatch and any other game you can think of.
NBA 2K11 deserves it.. you can see the devs really put their soul into this game and they know how Bball should be played.
Glad to see so many people bought NBA 2K11. It really is the best sports game I've played this year. I'm even proud of the fact that I sold off my copy of Madden to obtain it. If only Madden would have this kind of effort thrown into it.
LMAO at the cluelest analysts who predicted that this year's NPD would be much higher than last year. Lol, market analyst is the most useless job ever!
They really need a way to count online sales for computer games. I presume Steam is still profitable, but it's very difficult to find out how it's really doing.
The NPD reports aren't nearly as interesting as they were before without the numbers :(
@OneManDynasty81 I heard about the patch and i cant wait until it releases so i can get back to my MyPlayer mode LOL@everyone who disliked my comment before. Although it IS one of the greatest sports game ever, right now my copy is just a paper weight 13 games in.
Jordan wins.... again. One of the greatest sports games Ive ever tried...playing it as Im typing...
I'm glad that Rock Band 3 did relatively well, it's undoubtedly the best music game ever and I'd like to see it perform better than the last couple years of the genre have.
But FIFA and PES sold much better on PS3. It's a shame for NBA 2K11 though, it even supports Move. :(
Bugsy Fallout: New Vegas and Crapy graphics Fable III shouldn't be on this list Vanquish and Castlevania are way betters than these trash!
Surely PC gaming sold more that $0.04 billion. Maybe these are just crappy retailers that have hardly any PC games stocked and price them at the MSRP.
@ PixelAddict they are selling their numbers, GS did a story on it maybe 2 months ago. Subscribers to their service only. Now they just release totals in $$ amounts. And you're right, the actual numbers would have made the # of posts on this page in the hundreds, instead of just 22.
People give EA crap about rehashs and a stranglehold on creativity but it sure seems to be working for them.
ofcorse! because the ONE AND ONLY MICHAEL AIR THE GREATEST EVER JORDAN is in it. Thank YOu so much mj, we love you!!!!!
Enslaved, Vanquish, Reach, Fable and New Vegas should be the top five. Unfortunately the first two didnt even make it on the list
@ XxXtacy 2K is suppose to be releasing a patch at the end of this month for the freezing bugs/glitches. Hopefully though this is worked out in next years release though instead of having to wait on a patch. Minus those problems this is by far the best b-ball game I ever played.
I bought Halo: Reach, New Vegas and Fable III all on day 1 and I'm still playing Fallout and Fable......not so much Halo lol It's good to see the game I buy up at the top.
NPD must be selling its numbers now. Only reason they have not broken it out by volumetrics. Not that the finite numbers are worth anything more than a random comment.
Nice to see NBA2k11 sellign well. Its not only the best basketball game ever, but one of hte best sports videogames ever, jsut amazing how realistic they got this game.
I'm going to need 2K to fix the bug that freezes NBA2K11 before I consider buying another one of their games
I kind of miss the single SKU list. It took six version of NBA 2K11 to top Fallout. It isn't as representative of what actually sells well. Not that it matters to me, I ended up buying Bayonetta in October. :P
Ugh Medal of Honor at number 3. I too fell for the advertising campaign and I am utterly ashamed, such a mediocre game.
games with a 60 dollar price tag or even higher have an unfair advantage against $50 or below games. that is why everyone thinks this new system is useless.
@SamiRDuran - Yes, because the next step for industry sales numbers after slipping from "astronomical" to "still really good" is apparently death..
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