NPD: Gaming growth slows in August

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Sep 11, 2008 4:12 pm PT

US retail sales top $1 billion to show 9 percent growth for the month; Madden takes four of top 10 software spots with more than 2 million sold in all.

Analysts have been warning for months that the explosive growth experienced by the gaming industry this year would slow down as the holiday season approached. The industry-tracking NPD Group released its sales data for the month of August today, and the numbers are starting to prove the analysts right.

According to last month's NPD data, US retailers brought in $1.08 billion in sales for August, up 9 percent from August 2007's total of $995 million. That total was itself a 46 percent jump year over year. Broken down by segment, hardware sales were up 3 percent to $395 million, while software was up 13 percent to nearly $551 million. Accessories kept pace with the games, jumping 13 percent to $137 million.

While analysts predicted a slowdown, it appears to be coming faster than anticipated. Earlier this week, a selection of industry trackers predicted software sales growth for August would be at least 20 percent.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier noted this as the first time in 27 months the industry has shown single-digit growth overall, and said 2008 is still looking strong overall.

"Despite smaller growth this month, the industry is up 32 percent year-to-date and remains on target to achieve annual revenues in the range of $22 to $24 billion," Frazier said.

On the hardware front, Nintendo's DS and Wii once more took the top two positions. The DS finished the month on top with 518,300 in sales, while the Wii trailed with 453,000. The next-best-selling platform for the month was the PlayStation Portable, which sold 253,000 units. Every remaining system failed to break the 200,000 mark, as the Xbox 360 moved 195,200 systems, putting it just above the PlayStation 3's 185,400. Last generation's workhorse, the PlayStation 2, rounded out the field with hardware sales of 144,100.

As expected, Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 09 took the software title, as the gridiron juggernaut occupied four slots on the top 10 list. The Xbox 360 addition topped the charts with 1 million units sold, followed by the PS3 edition in second place (643,000 sold) and the PS2 edition in third (424,500 sold). The Wii version of the game, with its "All Play" focus, managed to make it into ninth place, selling 115,800 copies.

Nintendo chased the main Maddens with its trio of perennial chart-squatters, as Wii Fit took fourth place (394,900 sold), Mario Kart Wii shifted into fifth (328,700 sold), and the Wii Play with Wii Remote bundle slipped to sixth with another 200,200 units sold.

The remaining spots in the top 10 were occupied by seventh place Soulcalibur IV for Xbox 360 (174,000 sold), Silicon Knights' Norse-inspired Xbox 360 action game Too Human (168,200 sold) in eighth, and Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS hitting the 10 spot with 111,200 sold.

US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - AUGUST 2008
Software: $550.7M (+13%)
Hardware: $394.5M (+3%)
Accessories: $137.3M (+13%)
Total Games: $1.08B (+9%)

TOP-SELLING HARDWARE - AUGUST 2008
Nintendo DS--518,300
Wii--453,000
PlayStation Portable--253,000
Xbox 360--195,200
PlayStation 3--185,400
PlayStation 2--144,100

TOP-SELLING SOFTWARE - AUGUST 2008
Title / Publisher / Units*
1) Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360) / Electronic Arts / 1,000,000
2) Madden NFL 09 (PS3) / Electronic Arts / 643,000
3) Madden NFL 09 (PS2) / Electronic Arts / 424,500
4) Wii Fit w/ Balance Board (WII) / Nintendo / 394,900
5) Mario Kart Wii w/ Wheel (WII) / Nintendo / 328,700
6) Wii Play w/ Remote (WII) / Nintendo / 200,200
7) Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360) / Namco Bandai / 174,000
8) Too Human (Xbox 360) / Microsoft / 168,200
9) Madden NFL 09 (Wii) / Electronic Arts / 115,800
10) Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) / Activision Blizzard / 111,200

* Figures include Collector's Editions and non-hardware bundles.

119 Comments

  • white_jaguar

    Posted Sep 23, 2008 5:54 pm PT

    Am I the only one who doesn't have a DS?

  • darkride66

    Posted Sep 23, 2008 5:43 am PT

    By 2012, they estimate that worldwide sales for Blu-Ray disks should hit about 57.4 million disks annually. Again...in 2007, 50 million PS3 games were sold. People need to stop saying the PS3 is being used only for Blu-Ray and actually look at the evidence.

  • darkride66

    Posted Sep 23, 2008 5:39 am PT

    PhilipO38 said "please keep in mind a good amount of it's owners (PS3) are using it as a cheap Blu-Ray player."
    That's right, which is why Blu-Ray disks sell more than PS3 games. Waitaminute! That's not right. In 2007, over 50 million PS3 games were sold vs about 10 million Blu-Ray disks worldwide (and not all to PS3 owners). That would seem to indicate that the majority of people use the PS3 as...wait for it...a videogame console.

  • necronaux

    Posted Sep 19, 2008 9:23 am PT

    Sure. Understandable. GTA and COD in the rearview, and the "holiday" season approaching, the next couple months will be slow.

  • PhilipO38

    Posted Sep 18, 2008 2:23 pm PT

    The games sales per unit are far higher for the X360 then the PS3, as i believe the last numbers had ammount 3:1-4:1. Also, while the PS3 sales are close to the 360's, please keep in mind a good amount of it's owners are using it as a cheap Blu-Ray player. I'm sure the PS3 number would be under 100K each month this year, if it was not a Blu-Ray player as well as a game console. Always keep in mind, unlike the X360, the PS3 is surely not selling as a game console, only.

  • Rect_Pola

    Posted Sep 15, 2008 6:43 am PT

    Everybody knows August is the butt of the industry's fiscal year, and everybody knows why. Although forcing your audience to choose to spend their limited dollars from a glut of titles is a twisted business sense, they still hold back over late summer for the fall and holiday season. From now till March-ish is the sweetest plum. They want their games established in stores and/or built plenty of buzz by the time gift-giving season rolls around.

  • blackace

    Posted Sep 15, 2008 1:16 am PT

    Great_Ragnarok

    MS should offer their latest price drop to everywhere! not just the us
    *******************************************
    They are. The price drop was in Japan as well and M$ did a price drop in Europe earlier in the Spring.

  • jtthegame316

    Posted Sep 14, 2008 9:24 am PT

    so the xbox 360 should beat the ps 3. the xbox 360 keeps you playing the ps3 just sits and gathers dust. lets face it the best ps 3 games are on xbox anyway for example call of duty 4 soul calibur 4 virtua fighter 5 dcm 4 and many others. but what gives the xbox the egde is exclsives like halo 3, too human and ninja gadien 2 as well as having quality old school games on xbox live arcade. lets face it the ps 3 is not a games console its a movie player. sony see the games playing as a bonus where as microsoft are focused on games and see movie playback as a bonus and that is how things should be.

  • ctg867

    Posted Sep 13, 2008 9:45 am PT

    Given the fact that 4 of the 10 slots are taken up by casual garbage, I'm not even gonna bother to comment on the software, other then just to say that Madden sold a lot. How about NPD start giving the top 20 games the day they give the top 10 so I can find out what the real top 10 is.

    Anyway, both 360 and PS3 are down from last month, though since the PS3 dropped more, and I'd assume the 20GB Pro price drop reduced the 360 decrease, the 360 did end up beating the PS3, so props to Microsoft.

    So the PS3 is winning 5-3 this year in month by month NPD sales. The PS3 is at about 2.02 million units and the 360 at about 1.74 million units so far this year. The means the PS3 is winning by about 277k units, and comparatively it's about 1.16 to 1.00 ratio.

    Given that combined October through December sales are higher then combined January through September, that could all completely change, but as of now, that's where things are at. I don't know which of the Sony CEO's said it, but they very accurately predicted that this year the PS3 would win early on in Europe and Japan, and things would be a close race in the US, and that's exactly how it's turned out so far.

  • Agent-CSim-47

    Posted Sep 13, 2008 12:24 am PT

    Theirs a reason why gaming has slowed down, it's because their was NO good game coming out. Most are out in October or November.

  • MaChaorules

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 8:23 pm PT

    its amazing how much people buy madden every year...

  • Great_Ragnarok

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 4:20 pm PT

    MS should offer their latest price drop to everywhere! not just the us.

  • jaydiz1994

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 2:58 pm PT

    audioaxes Posted Sep 12, 2008 4:35 pm PT welp looks like 360 will beat PS3 this holiday

    Dude its 2 early 2 predicted that wat till October that is when we will have some clue of which one will sell more. PS i bet ps3 will with it strong line up this holiday season.

  • Hekynn

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 2:55 pm PT

    Bah these guys missed out the PC hardware I'm sure people are buying PC's these days for the new upcoming PC games Like Far Cry 2 etc etc thats coming out in October

  • Disciple_Gamer

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 2:16 pm PT

    It seems wii play will never leave the top ten. My hats off to the 360. Keep up the good work and maybe if time permits along with this economy pulling at my wallet, I can buy more games to play.

  • Disciple_Gamer

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 2:16 pm PT

    It seems wii play will never leave the top ten. My hats off to the 360. Keep up the good work and maybe if time permits along with this economy pulling at my wallet, I can buy more games to play.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 1:49 pm PT

    grigjd3 - PS2 has outsold PS3 some months. In the same way as DS and Wii are 'retro style gaming', obviously PS2 games can be considered 'retro'. Now add in the huge increase in interest in retro games on Xbox and PS3 'Live' and the growth in interest in PC retro gaming (via the success of www.gog.com) and you see there is a huge move away from modern video games to oldr games where gameplay is more prominant. The Wii and DS have shown gamers that PS2, retro PC and 8/16 bit style console graphics may be less, but gameplay is so much more, and just like with DS games especially, gameplay is what gamers want!

  • grigjd3

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 1:31 pm PT

    You know what's really scary about it all, the PS3 and the 360 are dangerously close to being outsold by the PS2. You think there might be a point where they just decide to forget about the current gen and go back to the old one?

  • nintendog66

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 12:34 pm PT

    "1) Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360) / Electronic Arts / 1,000,000 Too Human (Xbox 360) / Microsoft / 168,200"

    Shows 360 owners buy crap too... and LOTS of it.

  • aBathingApe_

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 11:29 am PT

    360 will outsell PS3 this holiday in HW & SW. Just wait and see.

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