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December 2007 NPD Data

Posted by Brian Shiau at 3:47PM on January 17, 2008

Video game hardware sales in December were below the market's expectations. Total hardware units came in at 6.938 million units, 13.04% below the market's expected 7.978 million units. Sales of all consoles, except for the PSP, were below the market expectations.

Many industry observers were concerned that the slowing US economy and slower holiday shopping this year would dampen game sales; however, strong sales in November may have lead the market into optimism for December. It appears the slower shopping this year did affect hardware sales.

As expected by the market, the Nintendo Wii lead home hardware sales with 1,350,000 units, below the expected 1,734,000 units. The miss in Wii sales is likely due to a shortage of supply as the console is sold out across America. Xbox 360 came in second for home consoles with 1,260,000 units sold, 8.75% below the market expectations of 1,461,000 units. Once again, the PS3 came in third with 797,600 units sold, just 8,75% below the market's expected 424,400 PS3 units to be sold.

Nintendo DS sold 2,470,000 units sold, compared to 2,854,000 expected unit sales. The PSP sold 1,060,000 units, inline with the expected 1,054,600 units.

Growth in video game sales were inline with expectations. Total video game software sales grew 36% from $1.74 billion in December 2006 to $2.37 billion, just 0.28% below the market's expected $2.38 billion.

The month's big winner was once again Activision's Call of Duty 4 which crushed market expectations again. The Xbox 360 SKU sold 1,470,000 units compared to an expectation of 929,900 units.

Sony's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3) also smashed expectations, selling 206,000 units, well ahead of the market's expectation of 139,900 units. Electronic Arts' Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PS3) disappointed with only 56,500 units sold, compared to an expected 106,900 units.

The following tables compare market expectations on the simExchange and actual results as reported by the NPD Group.

  • US Hardware in December 2007

    TitleActual unitsExpected units% From Expected
    Nintendo Wii 1,350,000 1,734,500 -22.17%
    Nintendo DS 2,470,000 2,854,000 -13.45%
    Xbox 360 1,260,000 1,461,000 -8.75%
    PlayStation Portable 1,060,000 1,054,600 +0.54%
    PLAYSTATION 3 797,600 874,100 -8.75%
    Total Hardware Units 6,937,600 7,978,200 -13.04%