NPD April 2011 - Sony takes second place, has PSN outage, May NPD will be fun

[BDSooner72]

From Gaf


4-week tracking month; Reporting Period 4/3/11 through 4/30/11

Software (New Physical Retail only) - System Ordering Does Not Indicate Sales Ordering
01. Mortal Kombat 2011 (PS3, 360)** Warner Bros. Interactive - 1+ Million With Special Editions (Much Higher Debut Than Both Street Fighter IV and MvC 3)
02. Portal 2 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts - 637K
03. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii, NDS, 360, 3DS, PS3, PC) LucasArts
04. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzard
05. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters (360, PS3, Wii)** Electronic Arts
06. Crysis 2 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts - 236K
07. Just Dance 2 (Wii) Ubisoft
08. Michael Jackson The Experience (360, Wii, PS3, NDS, PSP) Ubisoft
09. Pokemon White Version (NDS) Nintendo
10. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC) Take 2 Interactive - 190K

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

"The NPD Group has added several retailers to its panel, including Toys R Us, with the April 2011 release of its Retail Tracking Service covering Video Games."


Software Notes:

If SOCOM 4's accessory bundle sales counted, it would have been in the Top 10 as well. (Anita Frazier Below)

Top 10 Individual SKUs include: (Gamasutra And Anita Frazier Below)
-Mortal Kombat (360)
-Portal 2 (360)
-Crysis 2 (360)
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters (360)
-Michael Jackson: The Experience (360)
-Pokemon White (NDS)
-Pokemon Black (NDS)
-Just Dance 2 (Wii)
-SOCOM 4 (PS3)
-And Presumably Mortal Kombat (PS3)


Software LTDs:

Kinect Sports - 3+ Million Worldwide
Dance Central - 2.5+ Million Worldwide


Hardware:

Xbox 360 - 297K (+60%) - Top Selling Console
PlayStation 3 - ~204.3K (+13%)
Nintendo 3DS - 194K
Wii - 172K (-38%)


Analysis by NPD's Anita Frazier:
Originally Posted by Anita Frazier:
Overall

"New physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories showed notable growth in April versus last year. A 17% increase in unit sales translated into over 20% dollar growth due to higher average retail prices.

“Sales occurring in April resulted in 2% year-to-date dollar growth for new physical sales, reversing the negative trend up until March. All three categories experienced double-digit dollar growth compared to April 2010.

"Easter purchasing occurred in April this year as opposed to March last year. The Easter timing shift could explain about $60 million of the growth, but even accounting for that shift, sales of new physical product realized a notable increase versus last year."


Hardware

"Hardware sales realized the least growth at the category level. Unit sales were up 3%, with the greater dollar sales growth being driven by an increase in average retail price."

"The PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 platforms saw an increase in unit sales versus April 2010. The Xbox 360 platform was the best selling of the month in terms of unit sales, followed by the Nintendo DS."

"April marks the third consecutive month of year-over-year increase in dollar sales for the hardware category."


Software

"April 2011 represents the first month that new physical retail sales of content showed growth in both units and dollars since November of last year."

"The Xbox 360 platform generated the greatest unit sales of new physical content at over 3.5 million units for the month, followed by the Nintendo DS platform. The Nintendo DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 platforms all generated greater unit sales of content versus April 2010."

"The best-selling game of the month is Mortal Kombat 2011, which sold just under 900K units in its first month at retail."

"Portal 2 was the second best selling game in April. According to our PC digital download report, the original Portal was the fifth most downloaded game in 2010, and was available for free when Steam launched on Mac. Portal's performance on the PC, coupled with the success of the Orange Box on consoles undoubtedly helped prime the fan base for Portal 2."

"The content slate was stronger this year versus last April. Five games sold more than 250K units in April 2011 as opposed to just two last April."

"Games that would appear in the top ten ranking on a SKU basis for April include "NDS POKEMON BLACK VERSION," and "PS3 SOCOM 4: U.S. NAVY SEALS." If sales of the SOCOM Move accessory bundle were combined with software sales, this game would have ranked in the top ten titles as well."


Accessories

"On a year-to-date basis, video games accessories realized the greatest year-over-year percentage increase of all categories. The best-selling accessory item in April was the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points Game Card."

"Sony's SOCOM 4: Full Deployment Bundle, which included the Sharpshooter as well as the Move, was the top new accessory release."


Extra Information:

Originally Posted by Seda:
Gamasutra relayed Xbox 360 games that are in the top 10.

Top ten games at U.S. retail for the month included Xbox 360 versions of Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, Crysis 2, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters and Michael Jackson: The Experience, according to NPD.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3...1_ Boost.php?


Press Releases:

Microsoft:

Originally Posted by Seda:
Quote:
Xbox 360 continues to carry the momentum in U.S. sales as NPD's data now shows that Microsoft's console was once again the top selling console for the month of April, with a total of 297,000 units sold - representing growth of 60% year-over-year. Microsoft pointed out that it's also "been the top selling console in the United States for 10 out of the last 11 months and is the best selling console in 2011."

The Kinect camera also continues to do well for Microsoft. The company said that "consumer demand for Kinect and Kinect games continue to spur console momentum." Kinect Sports sales have now surpassed 3 million units worldwide and Harmonix's Kinect-exclusive Dance Central sales has sold over 2.5 million units worldwide.

All told, Microsoft said it expects the size of the Kinect games portfolio will triple by the end of the year. It's pretty clear that Kinect and new Kinect games will be a major focus at E3 for Microsoft.
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/x...riple-in-2011/
Sony:

Originally Posted by Seda:
Quote:
PS3 has been seeing "double digit growth," Sony says. Patrick Seybold, spokesman for SCEA, issued the following statement in reaction to today's NPD data report.

"NPD reported that the PlayStation 3 continues to see double-digit hardware growth. PS3 hardware sales are up nearly 13% and our PS3 software sales showed a 40% increase year-over-year. We continue to see a lot of great momentum at the retail level, and appreciate the support we've received from our partners, retailers and customers since the criminal attack on the PlayStation Network. We hope to have services restored as soon as we can."

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/p...te-psn-breach/