Monthly US Sales (May) – PSP Outsells GBA!

The numbers are in for May and some unthinkable things have happened. What are they? See if you can guess by the numbers before I explain!

PS2 – 231,616
360 – 220,877
PSP – 159,659
GBA – 152,023
NDS – 145,930
GCN – 33,040
XBX – 26,353

Yes, you see that correctly. The PlayStation Portable outsold the Game Boy Advance. This has been the first time that either the PSP or DS outsold the GBA. Maybe America is starting to move on? Then again, maybe if they keep buying GBAs, Nintendo will get a clue and localize Mother 3. The numbers also show that there are 145,930 people who were too impatient to wait for a DS Lite, which launches on June 11th. After it launches, expect the DS to push ahead of both the PSP and GBA for a good little while. It’s been shown in almost all the DS game commercials, including New Super Mario Bros. The GameCube beat the Xbox this month, but that’s not saying much as both systems are essentially dead. The PS2 shows it has a lot of legs left by beating out the Xbox 360, which was actually in supply for the entire month of May. Like the PSX, the PS2 will likely outsell the PS3 this holiday season.

Now, how did the software fare?

01. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. – 275 692 [NEW]
02. (PS2, Square-Enix) Kingdom Hearts 2 – 168 944 [1,318,967]
03. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day – 109 432 [199,749]
04. (PS2, Sony) God of War – 106 707 [1,144,513]
05. (360, UbiSoft) Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter – 84 431 [702,484]
06. (360, Take Two) Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – 83 507 [611,246]
07. (PS2, Sony) MLB 06: The Show – 81 895 [409,745]
08. (PS2, RedOctane) Guitar Hero – 67 871 [???]
09. (PS2, Take Two) GTA San Andreas – 64 520 [6,402,804]
10. (PS2, Square-Enix) Kingdom Hearts – 60 236 [2,742,017]

As you can see, even though the GBA and PSP outsold it, the DS still sold more software. The PS2 and Xbox 360 dominated the rest of the spots. Expect another burst of sales for New Super Mario Bros. when the DS Lite hits next month.Whether or not Brain Age has the same success it did in Japan remains to be seen. It’s off to a better start than it was in Japan, but it received a marketing push and we don’t have the books that Japan does so it might be different. Great to see games like Guitar Hero selling though.

For those wondering, Japanese Weekly Sales will now be posted monthly instead of weekly. Last week’s top three consoles were the DS Lite (135,614), PSP (24,595), and PS2 (18,513). The best selling game was New Super Mario Bros. which sold 334,208 copies bringing it to a total of 1,233,726 in just two weeks while proving the Japanese do buy more than just Brain Training games.

The numbers are in for May and some unthinkable things have happened. What are they? See if you can guess by the numbers before I explain!

PS2 – 231,616
360 – 220,877
PSP – 159,659
GBA – 152,023
NDS – 145,930
GCN – 33,040
XBX – 26,353

Yes, you see that correctly. The PlayStation Portable outsold the Game Boy Advance. This has been the first time that either the PSP or DS outsold the GBA. Maybe America is starting to move on? Then again, maybe if they keep buying GBAs, Nintendo will get a clue and localize Mother 3. The numbers also show that there are 145,930 people who were too impatient to wait for a DS Lite, which launches on June 11th. After it launches, expect the DS to push ahead of both the PSP and GBA for a good little while. It’s been shown in almost all the DS game commercials, including New Super Mario Bros. The GameCube beat the Xbox this month, but that’s not saying much as both systems are essentially dead. The PS2 shows it has a lot of legs left by beating out the Xbox 360, which was actually in supply for the entire month of May. Like the PSX, the PS2 will likely outsell the PS3 this holiday season.

Now, how did the software fare?

01. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. – 275 692 [NEW]
02. (PS2, Square-Enix) Kingdom Hearts 2 – 168 944 [1,318,967]
03. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day – 109 432 [199,749]
04. (PS2, Sony) God of War – 106 707 [1,144,513]
05. (360, UbiSoft) Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter – 84 431 [702,484]
06. (360, Take Two) Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – 83 507 [611,246]
07. (PS2, Sony) MLB 06: The Show – 81 895 [409,745]
08. (PS2, RedOctane) Guitar Hero – 67 871 [???]
09. (PS2, Take Two) GTA San Andreas – 64 520 [6,402,804]
10. (PS2, Square-Enix) Kingdom Hearts – 60 236 [2,742,017]

As you can see, even though the GBA and PSP outsold it, the DS still sold more software. The PS2 and Xbox 360 dominated the rest of the spots. Expect another burst of sales for New Super Mario Bros. when the DS Lite hits next month.Whether or not Brain Age has the same success it did in Japan remains to be seen. It’s off to a better start than it was in Japan, but it received a marketing push and we don’t have the books that Japan does so it might be different. Great to see games like Guitar Hero selling though.

For those wondering, Japanese Weekly Sales will now be posted monthly instead of weekly. Last week’s top three consoles were the DS Lite (135,614), PSP (24,595), and PS2 (18,513). The best selling game was New Super Mario Bros. which sold 334,208 copies bringing it to a total of 1,233,726 in just two weeks while proving the Japanese do buy more than just Brain Training games.