Data care of NPD Group
Reporting period: 8/1/10 - 8/28/10
360 – 356,700
DS -342,700
Wii – 244,300
PS3 -226,000
PSP – 79,400
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)
Games: $818.9 million (-10%)
Hardware: $282.9 million (-5%)
Software: $403.5 million (-14%)
Accessories: $132.4 million (-6%)
"Madden NFL 11 once again made August 'Madden Month' at retail," says NPD's Anita Frazier. "Sales of this year's game were about 6% higher than last year's in its debut month, but interestingly, all of the gains occurred on the PS3 platform, reflecting the impact of the hardware sales momentum on corresponding software sales."
Blizzard's PC game Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty -- had it qualified as a console video game -- actually would hit the charts with more than 300,000 copies sold. "In fact, PC games retail dollar sales saw a 35% increase over last August," Frazier says.
However, sales were not enough to prevent the industry's fifth straight decline. Total sales of video games, systems and accessories amounted to about $819 million, 10% below August 2009, according to NPD's report. Hardware sales dropped 5%, while software sales dropped 14%.
"In fact, this month reflected the lowest sales for August since 2006," says NPD's Anita Frazier. "While all categories are down in both dollars and units, the portable portion of the industry is down to a greater extent than is the console portion."