NPD February 15: Nintendo Achieves Absolute Victory

NPD Software Results:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (3DS) (515,000 copies sold digitally and physically)

2. Evolve (Xbox One, PS4, PC)

3. Dying Light (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

4. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)

5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)

6. NBA 2K15 (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)

7. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)

8. Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)

9. The Order: 1886 (PS4)

10. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS) (290,000 copies sold digitally and physically)

In-Depth NPD report on Software sales:

Nintendo is probably feeling pretty great right now. Zelda, one if its top franchises, outsold everything else in February. That includes two major new releases. This is good news for the company, which is going to release a brand new Zelda for the Wii U later this year that it is positioning as a system-selling game.

The two big new games that Zelda beat are Evolve and The Order: 1886. Evolve came out on Feb. 10, while The Order only had a week of sales after debuting Feb. 20. While both made the top 10, it feels like both didn’t perform as well as they should have. The Order was hammered with critical reviews, which likely hurt its sales.

In terms of surprises, Dying Light, which debuted in January, continues to sell well. The zombie-survival game is performing a lot like developer Techland’s previous game in this genre, Dead Island.

NPD Hardware Results:

- 395k 3DS Family (N3DS XL, 3DS XL, 2DS, 3DS)

- PS4 Best-Selling Home Console

- ≈276k XBONE

- ≈94k Wii U

In-Depth NPD Hardware Report:

Platform holders typically keep their hardware sales numbers quiet, but Sony once again revealed that PS4 was the top selling system for the month.

“Demand for PlayStation 4 remains incredibly strong in the U.S. as it was No. 1 in hardware and software sales in February, according to the latest NPD report,” a Sony spokesperson said in a statement. “PS4 remains the cumulative leader in hardware sales with more than 20.2 million units sold to consumers worldwide demonstrating the fastest growth in PlayStation hardware history.”

Nintendo shared some its figures as well. In a statement, the company confirmed that all versions of the handheld combined to sell 395,000 units in February.

“The great majority of these sales were New Nintendo 3DS XL systems, which sold 130 percent more units in its initial frame than Nintendo 3DS XL did when it launched on Aug. 19, 2012,” a spokesperson said.

As for the Wii U, the company would only say that “hardware sales have increased by more than 20 percent” so far in 2015 over the same period in 2014.

MSFT PR Report:

“Xbox One’s fan base continues to grow with record February sales in the U.S. for Xbox One and 84 percent more consoles sold compared to January 2015. In February 2015, fans spent an average of 74 hours on Xbox Live in the U.S. – three times the amount of hours the average user spends on social networks*. And, Xbox Live set new records, quadrupling global gaming hours on Xbox One and Xbox 360 in February 2015 compared to February 2014. We are grateful to our fans for choosing to play on Xbox One. Offerings and experiences will continue to expand with Xbox One and 'Halo: The Master Chief Collection' available together for $349, new games launching this month including 'ScreamRide' and 'Ori and the Blind Forest,' hundreds of new ID@Xbox games in development, and plans to make gaming even better on Windows 10 and Xbox.” – Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Marketing, Microsoft

NTDOY PR Report:

Nintendo 3DS is Best-Selling Hardware Platform in February

The one-two-three punch of New Nintendo 3DS XL, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate helped Nintendo 3DS become the top-selling hardware platform in the United States in February. All three products launched in the United States on Feb. 13, and even with only 17 days of data being reported they were able to accomplish the following:

In its 48th month on the market, the Nintendo 3DS family sold nearly 395,000 units in the U.S. The great majority of these sales were New Nintendo 3DS XL systems, which sold 130 percent more units in its initial frame than Nintendo 3DS XL did when it launched on Aug. 19, 2012.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D was the top-selling title for the month with more than 515,000 combined physical and digital units sold. The game is now the fastest-selling Legend of Zelda hand-held title in U.S. history.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate sold more than 290,000 combined physical and digital units and is now the fastest-selling Monster Hunter title – across all platforms – in U.S. history. In addition, the game has the highest Metascore of any Monster Hunter title and is also Capcom’s fastest-selling title on the Nintendo 3DS platform in U.S. history.

Through the first two months of 2015, sales of Nintendo 3DS hardware have increased by more than 90 percent over sales in the same period in 2014.

Nintendo also saw strong results for Wii U, which had its best year ever in 2014 and has continued to build on that momentum in 2015. Specific achievements include:

So far in 2015, sales of Wii U hardware have increased by more than 20 percent over sales in the same period in 2014.

Life-to-date sales of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and amiibo have surpassed 1.5 million total units and 3.5 million figures, respectively, an attach rate of nearly 2.5 amiibo figures per game unit sold.

The momentum for Nintendo software and systems should continue over the next few months thanks to a strong lineup of software that includes Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. (Nintendo 3DS, March 13), Mario Party 10 + Mario amiibo bundle (Wii U, March 20), Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (Nintendo 3DS, April 10) and Splatoon (Wii U, May).

Important Data:

- Majora's Mask 3D: 515k

- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - 290k

- amiibo LTD - 3.5 million

- Super Smash Wii U LTD - 1.5 million

http://venturebeat.com/2015/03/12/fe...4-npd-ps4-3ds/

Sorry @TigerSuperman

Something something sale matter now.

Even more impressive considering it got launched on the 13th

The WiiU is no where to be found.

Or doesn't matter now.

What about the Vita sales for the month?

@ninjapirate2000: Sales don't matter when it comes to Vita. Only when it comes to PS4.

Is this the official NPD thread? Looks like in the home console region I'll be setting this lil guy free!

Evolve is impressive. I was not sure whether that game would make it in the top 5. The Order didn't do very well.

Problem with this list is that NPD does not track digital. So the only number we have to go on is MH. If The Order did 290k combined physical and digital, we can assume that 30% of the orders sales are digital. That would mean 203 sales or less in NPD.

Let's say MM3D digital was 25%, that's 386.

We now have this list:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (3DS) (386k sold)

2. Evolve (Xbox One, PS4, PC)

3. Dying Light (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

4. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)

5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)

6. NBA 2K15 (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)

7. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)

8. Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)

9. The Order: 1886 (PS4) (190-203k sold)

10. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS)

So my predictions for the rest are:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (3DS) (386k sold)

2. Evolve (Xbox One, PS4, PC) (344k sold)

3. Dying Light (PS4, Xbox One, PC) (312k sold)

4. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC) (290-305k sold)

5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3) (277k sold)

6. NBA 2K15 (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360) (233k sold)

7. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360) (216k sold)

8. Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4) (210k sold)

9. The Order: 1886 (PS4) (190-203k sold)

10. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS) (153k sold)

@misterpmedia: Yeah, I'll go ahead and sticky it.

While I am at it, allow me to laugh at The Order relatively bombing, and celebrate the success of Majora's Mask and Monster Hunter.

@Captainqwark10: The issue with those calculations is that you are assuming a far higher digital radio for 3DS than is probably the case.

lol thank god Sony have the rest of the world to pick up the slack :P

@misterpmedia: Didn't The Order do poorly pretty much everywhere?

I'm not even sure tbh lol. I'm just assuming since everywhere else apart from NA is more Sonyland so it may have done a lot better worldwide. *shrugs*

@misterpmedia: I think it did pretty badly everywhere except for the UK, where it only did relatively better. It's not like DriveClub which sold great in spite of the reviews.

I wouldn't be surprised to be fair, but knew it would bomb in the NA for sure. Shame.

I wonder if Sony expected The Order to sell a bunch. Sucks if they did. But seriously a game that short could not have taken that much effort to make.

3DS digital has been rising all the time. So I believe the 20% I used is a good even ground. Even if I did 10% that's 463, but keep in mind that given the 3DS having much higher hardware sales, along with N3ds sales along with that, I doubt the 2nd in line would be near 463.

Another thing to take into account is the orders numbers. Which are 290k and the PS4 has a very nice digital base. That's about 203k range. I think the rest of the numbers follow that quite well.

I'm hoping for some sort of Uncharted 2 type treatment if there is ever a sequel made. They know the complaints by now, even if there are people who didn't mind it for what it was, myself included. According to 'people' it took them a while to create the engine rather than the game so now that the engine is already made it might not be as taxing to make a sequel in a shorter amount of time.

You're ignoring high production values and marketing.

Got to love that MS PR record breaking sales for the xbox one.

February 2015 276k $349 2 free games.

Ferbuary 2014 258k $500 dollars no free games..lol

Hahahahaa

Both good points. I'd still like to play it, but not anywhere near full price.

LOL

MSFT PR Report:

“Xbox One’s fan base continues to grow with record February sales in the U.S. for Xbox One and 84 percent more consoles sold compared to January 2015. In February 2015, fans spent an average of 74 hours on Xbox Live in the U.S. – three times the amount of hours the average user spends on social networks*. And, Xbox Live set new records, quadrupling global gaming hours on Xbox One and Xbox 360 in February 2015 compared to February 2014. We are grateful to our fans for choosing to play on Xbox One. Offerings and experiences will continue to expand with Xbox One and 'Halo: The Master Chief Collection' available together for $349, new games launching this month including 'ScreamRide' and 'Ori and the Blind Forest,' hundreds of new ID@Xbox games in development, and plans to make gaming even better on Windows 10 and Xbox.” – Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Marketing, Microsoft

The poor fella...hahahaa

Evolve is on more than 1 platform,and The order only had 1 week of sale yet it rated higher that Halo MCC did when Halo had more time on the chart not bad for a February release with 1 week.

Screamride can't replace titanfall pre-hype. Actually, I think Screamride flopped quite hard at 40k.

Non of this makes sense, it's february, halo charted during the holidays when games sell 4x more.

A fair comparison would be Lighting Returns.

We can figure out a rqange for the PS4 number. The Wii was at 330k it's second feb. You have a 280k mark for the Xbox One.

310 seems like a good middle ground.

"Absolute Victory"

*looks at WiiU sales"

Riiiigggghhhhhtttttt...........................

Also, Sticky? Really? :P

do you think vita will take the number one spot when oli oli 2 and shovel knight release?

@misterpmedia said:

And people wonder why every other patch is a stability one on the PS4.

Now you know dudes, now you know....

@Desmonic: I have stickied NPD threads before in the past. In fact, I used to do it regularly, but have been unable to do so since November or something, because the timeshift made it implausible.

Also, should we use Vita sales to negate or undermine Sony's victory every single month? Microsoft the only winner this generation confirmed.

@charizard1605: Your NPD report says this though:

“Demand for PlayStation 4 remains incredibly strong in the U.S. as it was No. 1 in hardware and software sales in February, according to the latest NPD report”

So which is it? :P

--

Don't think it deserves a sticky, but eh, whatever. Gotta use the function for something, rigth? XD

OH DAYUM!

It also says 3DS was #1.

3DS outsold everything else with all models put together. Geoff Keighley even confirmed it. Sony's PR holds true, however, since:

• They are presumably not counting handhelds (much like Microsoft did not count the DS back in the 360 days)
• Technically, the 3DS has four SKUs that combine for that result. Sony is probably at least splitting New 3DS and 3DS sales. In which case, the PS4 outsold the New 3DS, and the original 3DS, but not both of them put together.

All said and done, the 3DS outsold the PS4 this month, thanks to two big games and a new hardware model.

Titan fall wasn't exclusive and Titanfall came on march no February,and the xbox one was $500 with no games that is up to $250 more than the deal in story this pass February,hell worse since several times MS had additional extra like controller or another game like NBA,which make the gap even bigger.

Some times $349 with 3 games and some times $349 with 2 games and a free extra controller vs a $500 unit with nothing and they only sell 18k more is sad.

seems the cows are have a hard time letting nintendo take them from the back...

and with the ps4 tracking behind the wii...well its getting ugly.

@charizard1605: See, this sort of PR mess is WHY we need leakers (though I hear a major one got shutdown recently). Even god damn movies tell us how much they gross WW every single week, and these 3 companies decided that sales numbers were too cool for school (or not cool enough >.>) for no apparent reason.

Ah well. Least Zelda did great (and Xenoverse too amazingly!). 188Flop continues on it's downward spiral too.

Also, returning to the previous question (of whether to include Vita as a fail every month), the term absolute means just that, "absolute" :P Can't be absolute if one piece is missing breh. That's just a regular victory (or double, counting SW) :P

Whaaaaat?

@Desmonic: Well, technically both Sony and Nintendo were right. Nintendo had the best selling platform, Sony had the best selling hardware. And of course, there is the handheld/console market dichotomy.

Also, the one game I am most pleased about is not Majora's Mask (because it was always going to do well, the hype around it was insane), but Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. These sales, coupled with Nintendo's numbers for Europe, demonstrate that Monster Hunter is firmly established in the west now, even if as a more niche series (and it is well deserved too).

Also, 'absolute' meant hardware and software. I would have thought that would be clear >.>

He means the original Wii, which of course is right- the PS4 is tracking behind it.

Then again, the Wii's initial sales were insane, and there is also the fact that it tapered off after a few years. The PS4 may manage to overtake it eventually.

- PS4 Best-Selling Home Console

current gen 8 console leader SONY continuing to ROLL guys,

So Ps4 has this gen? I said it!!

Muahahaha the bone barely went passed its last year figures even tho it's almkst 200$ cheaper lmao

@charizard1605: Yeah, but Absolute Ninty victory isn't absolute if one of it's hardware is flopping around :P Just sayin' breh.

MH is doing alright for itself alright. Not really my jam at all, but it's always nice too see cool games do well! Dying Light also received some love! :D

I wonder...which will do better in March: FF Type-0 or Bloodborne? One is/was a somewhat non-popular-ish FF game with a FF15 demo, the other is a new entry on a niche genre which has gotten more popular with each previous installment. Should be an "interesting" fight.

PS: Pre-orders of Bloodborne here come with a nifty free shirt. Guess I'll be a day 1 buyer and join @_Matt_ on that hype train XD lol

@Desmonic: Bloodborne. Pre-order it and join us.

@charizard1605: I'm just kinda scared of getting burned on it :S Not the biggest of the only Souls game I own (Demon Souls).

@Desmonic: See, the way I see it is, even if you do suck at it, you can play it with friends and still have fun.

TF had mass hype

@charizard1605: Wasn't so much a question of sucking, more of getting bored with it. I dunno, the "search for the damn story/plot/motivation" thing just didn't work for me. Kinda felt like I was raiding stuff for shits and giggles :P