NPD August 2010 Sales Figures, the Industry Suffers Another Down Month

Welcome to another installment of “That Game Sold How Many, Now?!” or as it is known in gamer’s parlance the monthly NPD numbers. The industry as a whole can’t seem to string together a pair of wins, as it is down 10% this month compared to the same time in 2009. 

As has become common in the month’s where the industry has lost steam compared to 2009, Nintendo is the primary culprit. Both the DS and the Wii suffered drops compared to August 2009. Meanwhile, the Playstation 3 and especially the Xbox 360 both earned some hearty gains. 

The software:

1. Madden NFL 11 (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360)  920,800
2. Madden NFL 11 (Electronic Arts, PlayStation 3)  893,600
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo, Wii)  124,600
4. Mafia II (Take 2 Interactive, Xbox 360)  121,600
5. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, DS)  110,400
6. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo)
7. Mafia II (Take 2 Interactive, PS3)
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard, Xbox 360)
9. NCAA Football 11 (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360)
10. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo)

The hardware: 

Console – August 2010 (July 2010) 
360 – 356.7K (443.5K)
DS -342.7K (398.4K)
Wii – 244.3K (253.9K)
PS3 -226K (214.5K)
PSP – 79.4K (84.0K)

Summer is in full effect. It looks like publishers have officially split 2010 into thirds with the first third and final third pack with big titles, and the middle third left to Madden and hold-overs from earlier in the year. The only new games in the top 10 for software are Madden and Mafia II.

Madden easily takes the number one spot, both before and after the two totals for PS3 and 360 are combined. When those numbers are combined the series sold a huge 1.8M. Seems like the country is excited about football. EA needs to get their money’s worth out of the NFL this season, as their may be no next season due to a labor disagreement. 

Mafia II hit 4 and 7 on this list for a decent premiere, but unless it continues to sell at this pace for the next one or two months, chances are it won’t recover its supposed $40M budget. 

As usual the rest of the list is mainly Nintendo. There are three Super Mario games in the top 10 with Super Mario Galaxy 2coming in number 3. SMG2 seems to be continuing the recent tradition of Mario games remaining in the top 10 for months and months after its initial release. 

Riffing on that same theme is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 appearing at 8 on the list. It seems to have survived the challenge from Bad Company 2 and continues to sell month after month.

On the hardware front, it is all Xbox 360 (356.7K) which takes top honors for the second month in a row. It can’t match its numbers from last month, but it still far and away outsold the rest of the home consoles. Even the mighty Nintendo DS (342.7K) couldn’t match 360 for August. 

The Wii (244.3K) has begun to meet with a steady decline, both month-to-month and year-over-year. Look for Nintendo to begin releasing a variety of colors for the holidays in 2010 and then possibly a price drop in early 2011. 

Finally, Sony’s PS3 (226K) just can’t seem to get any momentum. It’s sales have picked up both month-to-month and year-over-year, but it is still trailing the 360 and the Wii. We say this most months, but without months of sustained growth over Microsoft and Nintendo the PS3 is going to have a hard time escaping the smallest share of the market for this generation. 

Finally, as always, the PSP. Rumors have emerged that Sony will announce a new PSP at Tokyo Game Show. Chances are these rumors are going to continue cropping up about every major trade show until Sony finally does reveal their direction for their portable gaming machine. What is clear is that they no longer have their heart in the fight.