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[Nirolak]

Overall:

U.S. retail sales down 22% year over year.


Software:

XX. New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo, Wii U) - 337K

Lifetime Sales:
-Just Dance 3 (Wii) - 5 million
-NSMB2 (3DS) - 1.45 million
-NSMBU (Wii U) - 580K


Hardware:

Xbox 360: 1.4M (-17.6%) ["More than double the amount of the second place console in the U.S. in the month of December."]
3DS: 1.25M (-21.8%)
Wii: 475K (-55.2%)
DS: 470K (-25.4%)
Wii U: 460K [The Wii launch was 604K]


Other Information:

Xbox 360 ended 2012 as the best-selling console in the U.S., selling 1.4 million units in December. Xbox 360 was the must-have gift this holiday season with more than $1.27 billion spent on Xbox 360 retail including games, consoles and accessories in December. (Source: NPD Group, December 2012)

December 2012 NPD highlights:
· Xbox 360 sold 1.4 million units in December – more than double the amount of the second place console in the U.S. in the month of December. This marks the 24th consecutive month Xbox 360 has held the number one spot in the U.S. (Source: NPD Group, December 2012)

· During the month of December, Xbox 360 held seven of the top 10 console game titles including: “Halo 4,” “Assassin’s Creed III,” “Just Dance 4,” “NBA 2K13,” “Far Cry 3,” “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” and “Madden NFL 13.” (Source: NPD Group, December 2012)



This holiday, Xbox delivered incredible value offerings paired with a strong lineup of entertainment experiences, along with exclusive blockbuster games like “Halo 4,” “Forza Horizon,” “Dance Central 3” and “Fable: The Journey,” as well as new family friendly titles such as “Kinect Nat Geo TV,” “Kinect Sesame Street TV,” and “Nike+ Kinect Training,” and third party titles like “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” and “Assassin’s Creed III.”


Even though the holidays are over, consumers can still get the best all-in-one entertainment experience starting at $99 with a two-year Xbox LIVE Gold commitment at $14.99/month. The Xbox 360 Entertainment For All Plan offers access to the best entertainment experiences including TV, movies, music, and sports, plus the hottest blockbuster games – all in one package. *


We expect 2013 will be another big year for Xbox 360 and we’re eager to continue to expand and grow the offerings available on the platform.

Another month of retail video game decline in the US

It was bad news as usual for the retail video game industry in the United States last month.

Analysts at the NPD Group say that retail sales across the video game industry were down 22% in December, from $4.1 billion in 2011 to $3.21 billion this time around.

As usual, software caused the biggest hit (dollar sales were down 27%), which analyst Liam Callahan attributes to fewer releases.

"A major culprit in the decline in retail sales in 2012 was the lack of new releases with 29% less SKUs across consoles, portables, and PCs," he said in a statement.

"However, the SKUs that were released generated 8% more units per SKU and 11% more dollars per SKU."

The top-selling debut title of the month was Ubisoft's Far Cry 3, though it was Activison's November release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II that topped the overall charts.

By the Numbers
Video game hardware: $1.07B (-20%)
Video game software (console, handheld): $1.54B (-26%)
Video game software (console, handheld, and PC): $1.58B (-27%)
Video game accessories: $603M (-14%)
Total video game sales: $3.21B (-22%)

Nintendo News

Wii U Hardware Sales Surpass Wii Sales by More Than $30 Million through First Six Weeks

With more than 460,000 units sold in December, Wii U has now sold nearly 890,000 units in the United States after only 41 days on the market, according to the NPD Group. To date, Wii U hardware sales have generated more than $300 million in the U.S. alone; Wii hardware had generated just more than $270 million at the same point in its lifecycle.

“While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “The demand for the Deluxe SKU, which was essentially sold out at retail this holiday, and the strong attach rate of New Super Mario Bros. U, shows that we have the value and the games to drive momentum in 2013. We look forward to offering great new experiences and bringing smiles to millions of new faces throughout the year.”

Nintendo sold more than 2.65 million hardware units in the United States in the month of December. 2012 marked the 11th consecutive year that Nintendo has sold at least 8 million hardware units in the U.S. Other Nintendo sales milestones achieved in December 2012 and beyond that time frame, include:

• 
  [*]New Super Mario Bros. U has now sold more than 580,000 units, an attach rate of more than 65 percent.
  
  [*]Nintendo 3DS sold more than 1.25 million units in December and has crossed 7.7 million units sold life to date.
  [*]New Super Mario Bros. 2 became the fourth Nintendo 3DS title to surpass 1 million units sold in the U.S., and has now sold more than 1.45 million units life to date.
  [*]Nintendo 3DS continues to outpace the historic sales rate of Nintendo DS.
  
  [*]Wii sold nearly 475,000 units and crossed 40.8 million units sold life to date.
  [*]Ubisoft’s Just Dance 3 became the 10th Wii title to sell more than 5 million units life to date.
  
  [*]Nintendo DS sold nearly 470,000 units and crossed 53 million units sold life to date.

Wii U has generated 3% more dollar sales than the Wii when looking at Dec vs Dec, but it is 11% for YTD.

 

[catmincer]

Wow 1.4 million. That is excellent for MS.

 

[sangreal]

Impressive for 360

not so much WiiU

 

[Troll]

Just Dance just tea bagged Halo 4.

 

[rouken]

nextbox pushed to 2014?

 

[Loudninja]

Pretty typical December really.

 

[BlackJace]

Damn son. 360 still sluggin.

 

[farnham]

Nintendo and sony are awefully quiet

 

[Carl]

Look forward to WiiU sales.

 

[Kusagari]

360 domination

 

[Nirolak]

nextbox pushed to 2014?

Generally you don't wait until your product is dead to release a new one unless you hate yourself.

 

[def sim]

1.4 mil isn't too bad for a console on life support.

 

[GarthVaderUK]

Halo 4 looks like it's still doing well, wonder how much it sold this month.

PS3 under 700K then?

 

[velvet_nitemare]

nextbox pushed to 2014?

Hell No.

 

[Call Me Maybe]

NSMB2 charted? Wat
Also, Jesus Christ, Xbox. That's absolute domination.

 

[GavinGT]

Will someone in my Wake Up Club please wake me when creamsugar leaks the Vita number?

 

[Jonsoncao]

Poor PS3 performance in December screwed my NPD prediction score, AGAIN, just like last year.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Not a bad second month for Halo 4, I guess. A shame. Oh well, next time.

December hardware doesn't seem to be what is used to be. Some theories tossed around in the prediction thread on that one.

 

[Pooya]

curious about AC3 sales, AC games sold really well in Dec in previous years, almost as much as their Nov. AC3 opened a lot higher than last years, it won't sell as much this month but still should be above a 1m easily. 1.5+ even, we'll see hopefully.

 

[Nerdstrom]

No NSMB wiiU? You'd think it would sell 1:1

 

[A Human Becoming]

PS3 and Wii U both sold less than 700k? Ouch.

 

[Seda]

Nothing terribly interesting except maybe NSMB2

 

[bigtroyjon]

Seems like Madden has done better than normal.

 

[Dabanton]

impressive

 

[Scum]

More than double the second second placed console? 550k for the DS then.

 

[Deadly Joker]

nextbox pushed to 2014?

No chance in hell.

 

[Ingeniero]

1.4 million that's excellent for MS.

 

[Smutpeddler]

Down 22%

Time for some new boxes and some excitement up in here!

 

[dvolovets]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but is the order in which the SKUs are mentioned reflective of the sales of each one relative to the other?

 

[darkside31337]

So the Vita versions of Madden / FIFA outsold the Wii U version?

 

[SolarPowered]

Microsoft is going to own the US gaming market at this rate when it comes to consoles.

 

[Miles X]

360 is less than 1.8 mill behind PS2 in the same time frame.

 

[user_nat]

Has a FIFA game ever done anywhere near this well in the US?

 

[Mileena]

Shitty boring generic top 10. Us Americans sure do have bad taste


Also it's goddamn hilarious that Wii U games are getting outsold by Vita and PC retail titles.

 

[Kusagari]

No NSMB wiiU? You'd think it would sell 1:1

Why on Earth would anyone think that?

 

[Psychotext]

I'm guessing it's the PS3 in second with slightly less than 700k? What did Pachter say for Wii U?

Edit - I see the 360 is down about 300k. I guess that's not massively surprising without Kinect hype.

 

[bigkrev]

Would never have guessed Lego Batman 2 had the crazy legs to be one of the top 10 of the year!

 

[Nirolak]

Mass Effect 3 opened at 1.3 million copies, so anything on the annual list is higher than that.

FIFA has grown quite impressively.

 

[Troll]

Looks like the 360 is going to take 1st in the US this gen. Good for MS.

 

[GarthVaderUK]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but is the order in which the SKUs are mentioned reflective of the sales of each one relative to the other?

Someone confirmed that at one point, I think...

 

[Baconsammy]

Wherefore art thou, Nintendo? Software and hardware. Pachter's guess of 750k for the WiiU is off by at least 50k. Yet he'll eat well tonight. I hope at this time next year we're wringing our hands over the sales numbers for PS4 and Xbox.

 

[DSN2K]

who needs 720 when 360 selling so well still....

 

[RoboPlato]

The 360's domination in the US is just plain insane. They still seem to have a ton of momentum.

 

[SolarPowered]

nextbox pushed to 2014?

They are going to strike while the iron is hot in 2013.

 

[Megadragon15]

Hope we get numbers from Nintendo and Sony(lol).

 

[GavinGT]

360 is less than 1.8 mill behind PS2 in the same time frame.

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if 360 eventually topped PS2 in terms of overall NA sales.

 

[CitizenCope]

Xbox is a beast in the U.S..

 

[Nerdstrom]

Why on Earth would anyone think that?

not sure if serious.

Spoiler

because mario?

 

[Anth0ny]

Absolute domination from Microsoft for this entire year, really.

Wonder what those Wii U numbers look like...

 

[JordanLMiller]

I want to see some Wii U numbers!