NPD Group Releases June, 2008 U.S. Console Sales Numbers

 

NPD has released their console sales numbers for the U.S., for May, 2008.  The next-gen console sales for the month were:

XBox 360: 219,800 

PS3: 405,500

Wii: 666,700

"Sign of the devil" aside, Nintendo had another phenomenal month last month.  They really do seem unstoppable.  While many 'hardcore gamers' think the system is underpowered and doesn't offer enough 'typical' games, Nintendo made an extremely wise play in letting Sony and Microsoft fight over that demo, and instead went after everyone else in the world.  The unique interactivity the system provides, along with a slew of "party" games has made the system the go-to choice for casual gamers and even many people who wouldn't consider themselves gamers at all.

For its part, Sony had a terrific month, outselling the XBox 360 by nearly 200,000 units in the U.S.  While the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3 certainly helped sell systems, Sony's sales have been improving all year and don't seem likely to slow in the near future.

The above graph shows how well each of the three next-gen systems sold in the U.S. so far in 2008.

Again, you can see Nintendo's dominance, but more surprising to many is that the PS3 has been ahead of the Xbox 360 all year.  Starting with June, it even appears to be breaking away further, which must be seen as very good news for Sony.

Still, the XBox 360 has been out a year longer than the other consoles, so here is a chart that shows the total U.S. sales of the consoles over their lifetimes.

As expected, the Wii officially passed the Xbox 360 in terms of total U.S. sales in June.  While it passed Microsoft worldwide a long time ago, this has to scare Microsoft a bit, as the U.S. is obviously Microsoft's home territory.

The PS3 is still quite a way back, but if it continues making gains as it has so far this year, it seems likely that it will at least reach Microsoft's sales level eventually.  Unless the bottom falls out of Wii sales, though, that truly looks like it will be uncatchable by either other system.

As many people have been asking me about worldwide sales numbers, I'll go ahead and provide a screengrab from VGChartz below.  While VGChartz' data is certainly interesting to look at, it must be noted that they have a smaller sample of data to work from than the NPD data for the U.S., and that they have to attempt to extrapolate data worldwide.  As such, it must be assumed that the data is somewhat less accurate than the NPD data.

Worldwide sales definitely shows an even bigger trend for the Wii's dominance and the slowing sales of the Xbox 360.  The PS3 trails the Xbox 360 by only 30%, despite the Xbox's year-long head start.  Can an Xbox 720 be too far away?  I keep hearing about this new storage format called Blu-ray that holds 50GB on a disc and plays movies in 1080p.  They should really look into that.