NPD Group for August: 360 up, Wii still on top, more

Looks like Michael Pachter was right as August's results for console sales report that the Xbox 360 has surged, selling almost 100,000 more units than it did last July, over than what Pachter predicted. The NPD group also reports that the Wii still dominates the charts, and the Nintendo DS is still the more popular handheld.

All in all, the industry is bulking up. Last July console and software sales reached US$ 925.5 million, and this month it rose to US$ 933 million. A bit more and it truly will be a billion dollar industry. It's up 43% from August last year, when the industry was already strong at US$ 669 billion.

PS3 and PSP sales declined this month. PS3 sales slipped about 29,000 units in sales from last month. The PSP slipped more than 50,000 units in sales, but this is most likely in anticipation for the PSP Slim. The Wii and DS also declined a bit this month even though they're still on top.

NPD Analyst Anita Frazier describes Sony's current situation as "concerning, and the window for [Sony] turning the story around is certainly getting narrower." Here's a complete list of hardware sales this month:

• Nintendo Wii - 403,600 (4.0 million)
• Nintendo DS - 383,300 (12.7 million)
• Xbox 360 - 276,700 (6.3 million)
• PlayStation 2 - 202,000 (39.1 million)
• PlayStation Portable - 151,200 (8.3 million)
• PlayStation 3 - 130,600 (1.75 million)

Software sales are up 21% from last year, raising the bar to US$ 2.8 billion. Madden 08 ruled last August as the most popular game on both the Xbox 360 and the PS2, while the PS3 version is on fourth place. Bioshock sits comfortably on third place while Wii Play is on fifth. No DS games on Top 10 for August though.

Via Gamasutra

Looks like Michael Pachter was right as August's results for console sales report that the Xbox 360 has surged, selling almost 100,000 more units than it did last July, over than what Pachter predicted. The NPD group also reports that the Wii still dominates the charts, and the Nintendo DS is still the more popular handheld.

All in all, the industry is bulking up. Last July console and software sales reached US$ 925.5 million, and this month it rose to US$ 933 million. A bit more and it truly will be a billion dollar industry. It's up 43% from August last year, when the industry was already strong at US$ 669 billion.

PS3 and PSP sales declined this month. PS3 sales slipped about 29,000 units in sales from last month. The PSP slipped more than 50,000 units in sales, but this is most likely in anticipation for the PSP Slim. The Wii and DS also declined a bit this month even though they're still on top.

NPD Analyst Anita Frazier describes Sony's current situation as "concerning, and the window for [Sony] turning the story around is certainly getting narrower." Here's a complete list of hardware sales this month:

• Nintendo Wii - 403,600 (4.0 million)
• Nintendo DS - 383,300 (12.7 million)
• Xbox 360 - 276,700 (6.3 million)
• PlayStation 2 - 202,000 (39.1 million)
• PlayStation Portable - 151,200 (8.3 million)
• PlayStation 3 - 130,600 (1.75 million)

Software sales are up 21% from last year, raising the bar to US$ 2.8 billion. Madden 08 ruled last August as the most popular game on both the Xbox 360 and the PS2, while the PS3 version is on fourth place. Bioshock sits comfortably on third place while Wii Play is on fifth. No DS games on Top 10 for August though.

Via Gamasutra