NPD Reports November Console Sales

CBackSlash writes "Joystiq has a summary of the NPD console sales numbers for November 2006. The big headline is that the industry overall was up 34 percent to $1.7 billion. But the smaller headlines are probably more interesting for us: PS3 only shipped 197k, while the XBox 360 had 511k, and the Wii had a very respectable 476k. However, all of the new consoles were outsold by the lowly PS2 (664k) and DS Lite(641k)." These are a more detailed set of numbers than those we discussed on Wednesday.

Re:Only one glaring issue.

[__aaclcg7560]

IIRC, The NPD doesn't report Wal-Mart sales. Either way, take with a grain of salt.

Re:Only one glaring issue.

[Manmademan]

"A lot"? What else, other than online? Online is a fraction of actual console sales, so you can happily discard those as still have meaningful numbers. So what else is being omitted?

NPD figures do not include Walmart either, which does have meaningful numbers, but AFAIK no one console dramatically outsells the others there, so it's more or less a wash and the numbers are useful.

Before saying "Only"

[HappySqurriel]

Before saying that "The PS3 only shipped 197k" or that "Nintendo only shipped 476k Wii" you have to realize that NPD has never been a perfectly accurate survey of the number of system sales; they produce statistics that are valid and useful as a comparison to other NPD numbers. For years NPD didn't include Walmart's numbers and currently doesn't include online sales and sales from smaller retailers; this likely doesn't change the ratios of the numbers but it means that Sony could have sold 250k and Nintendo could have sold 600k.

Re:Only one glaring issue.

[HappySqurriel]

Acutally, I could be wrong but I suspect that not including Walmart would skew the results ...

Years ago I heard that Nintendo was far more successful at selling their product in Walmart than they were at Bestbuy/EBgames whereas Sony was far more successful in Bestbuy/EBGames as compared to Walmart; this was because the Gamecube was a less expensive system that targeted families (which fit Walmart like a glove) and the PS2 was more expensive and targeted single males (which suited Bestbuy/EBgames). If this is true, this would mean that Nintendo would lose more "sales" by not including Walmart in your study than Sony would.

By the way ... I'm saying Nintendo sold a greater percentage of there consoles at Walmart, not that Nintendo outsold Sony at Walmart

Nintendo Sales

[MrCopilot]

Console Sales (units)

* DS: 918k
* PS2: 664k
* Game Boy Advance: 661k
* Xbox 360: 511k
* Wii: 476k
* PSP: 412k
* PS3: 197k

Software Sales (units and sales grossed)

* Gears of War: 1 million -- $61.5 million
* Final Fantasy XII: 896k -- $49 million
* The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: 412k -- $20.2 million
* Guitar Hero II: 356k -- $20.2 million

All very interesting, but what I want to know is: Who are these 64 thousand new Wii owners who didn't pick up twilight princess? For Shame.

Re:197k PS3's seems right on target

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget to mention Nintendo there, buddy. They're quite a ways off of their target as well.