NDP Sales Numbers Released
January 12th, 2007 by Darren Stevens in Articles, Business, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PC, Wii, Xbox360The NPD Group just released the North American sales numbers for 2006. The Wii sold 1.1 million units since launch, while the PS3 managed to sell 687,000 units. But that’s nothing compared to the Xbox 360, which sold a massive 1.1 million units in December alone. Another big winner was the DS, selling 1.5 million units in December, while the PS2 sold an equally impressive 1.4 million. The PSP was also present in the race, shifting 953,000 units.
All in all, millions of consoles were sold in December alone. NDP reports that the console business earned $12.5 billion in 2006, a 19 percent increase from last year. Hardware sales were up 42.8 percent. All in all, 2006 was a record year for the gaming industry.
On the software side, EA dominated with Madden 07, followed by New Super Mario Bros. and Gears of War. The Top 10 best selling games in 2006 were:
- Madden NFL 07 (PS2), EA, 2.8 million
- New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo, 2 million
- Gears of War, Microsoft, 1.8 million
- Kingdom Hearts 2, Square Enix, 1.7 million
- Guitar Hero 2, Activision, 1.3 million
- Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix, 1.3 million
- Brain Age, Nintendo, 1.1 million
- Madden NFL 07 (360), 1.1 million
- Ghost Recon: AW, Ubisoft, 1.0 million
- NCAA Football 07, EA, 1.0 million
Via Kotaku
Tags: Articles, Business, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PC, Wii, Xbox360
January 12th, 2007 at 3:28 am
A few surprises for me; I didn’t realize Brain Age was that popular (probably because I didn’t really follow handhelds until recently), and that the PSP almost sold a million in December. The PS2 put up some great sale figures for what looks to be the last holiday for it to do so.
January 12th, 2007 at 3:34 am
I too am surpriesed that the PS2 is selling THAT well. Finally some good news for Sony
Other than that, the DS won 2006, with the 360 as the best selling console (but that’s not a suprise). 2007 will be the real challenge.
And Madden selling over 4 million units combined (PC/PS2/PS3/360/GC), that’s almost unbelievable.
January 12th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Good lord, stunning numbers for the DS and PS2, way to go! Also, quite surpring that New Super Mario Bros. is number 2, DS games are selling great (look at Brain age as well).
January 12th, 2007 at 4:48 am
hmm.. it’s interesting to see how the PS2 still stomps the 360 in sales. now let’s see how well the ps2 can pass the baton on to it’s successor.
January 12th, 2007 at 6:00 am
That’s a lot of happy kids for the Christmas of 2006.
The spoiled brats that they probably are. I was lucky I even had video games to play as a kid. Now there is something available to everyone.
January 12th, 2007 at 8:46 am
What the crap? When did Final Fantasy XIII come out??? 1.3 million!!! Damn I need to visit gamestop.com more often.
January 12th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Not FFXIII, FFXII! Playing it right now on my PS3. They should list it for PS3 as well. Looks like Games not surprizingly and overwhelmingly mark the Sony PS2 as the real Winner of 2006. More consoles and games sold. Anuban will be furious. The months of Nov. and Dec. games sales also belonged to PS2 (Anuban hates that word), with Madden Football taking the top spot for a grand of 11 out of 20. So two months in a row PS2 beats out X360 for top game and sold more consoles! LOL Sony is very happy and RICH!
PS3’s Launch flat out killed X360’s launch by double and I bought consoles at both launches. But my X360 (at least one) is just a doorstop now. I was practicing with the mankiller power brick, swinging it around and took out my an older TV instead of my exgirlfried’s picture. Wow you ever took out a tube TV? This power brick might be a distance cousin to the Wiimote!
Just kidding, don’t take it serious. I am picking up a Wii this weekend been seeing them in stock lately here.
But overall the Japanese still own our world of gaming and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. All Hail the PS2 it still rules Supreme 6 years later! LOL And I just LOVE playing FFXII!
January 12th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
well damn I thought I was in the Future, it says FFXIII above.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
i heard that FFXII is around 35+ hours of gameplay. i’ve never really been big on these kinds of games because RPGs seem to always come with these steep learning curves. Still, after hearing so much hype over FFXII my curiosity seems to be getting the best of me. So before i spend these greenbacks, would anyone recommend FFXII to an RPG newbie ?
January 12th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
personally, i hate RPGs. and i don’t care how pretty the graphics may look, turn-based games suck! with every RPG you have to practically memorize some 5″ thick manual just to get started. I wanna jump right into the action rigtht from the start ya know. but nah, i wouldn’t recommend not one of those freakin RPGs.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:22 am
anymore lively opinions? lol
January 13th, 2007 at 1:02 am
I’m with you StMadness, that’s why I only play FPS games, just dive in and play a round or two of BF2 or Counter-Strike.
January 13th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Re: ZaVaz
LOL Yeah I would have too. It’s FFXII is the only released yet. For being a PS2 they really pushed the graphics to the limit on this one. Plus my HDTV has a scaler in it. But it looks great on a standard TV even. The combat system change though is what sets this apart from even Sakaguchi’s Blue Dragon on X360. Blue Dragon uses the system and FFXII is so much more advanced. Game play is awesome as well as excellent looking. Reviews got it between 9.6 and in Japan it got a 10s.
Re: RPG Haters
Actually I’m almost done with FFXII and running on 39+ hours. But that’s the point, you feel like you get money’s worth and it very satisfying when you beat them. I disagree with with FPS games being any different. You can jump in and out between any game style and originally FPS types took a minimum of 20 hours. Now we have games like Gears giving you only 8 good hours and no real story. I hope Epic doesn’t cheat UT2007 for PS3 to some ridiculous time like that.
Another thing that is really getting mad is all these games going multiplatform to sell more don’t lower the price on the ones for consoles. You pay more many times to subsidize PC games.
Recomend FFXII? You better freaking believe it! Could be the best one yet with the game play change and InFreakingCredible Graphics!!!! You are in a monsterously huge world and city you could explore FOREVER!!! Not just a doors to open in a few buildings. Everything works interactively, it’s first time I’ve ever really felt like I was inside the game. Combat style is much more realistic too! RECOMENDED STRONGLY anytime, anyday, anycentury!!!!!
January 13th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I would like to remind everyone that those numbers are all only US numbers. Not world wide. Last year X360 launched on all three main regions to get less than half what PS3 did in just NA and Japan. They still have Europe with some great titles releasing then too.
LOL Excuse typing errors in above post. Doing this in Wine installed I.E. on Linux and don’t have extra fonts install yet. So to me it looks more Arabic!!!
January 15th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
The one thing I found curious for Sony was that no PS3 title made the top 10 list. Only PS2 games. So while the current gen (or now last gen) system is still doing well thanks in large part to the low cost of the system and the many titles still available for it the PS3 is still sluggish at this point with no driving titles yet. Still it is good for Sony they have such a cash cow to depend on otherwise they would really be in bad shape. I just wonder how they are going to get people over to the PS3 side. I just don’t see them catching up in the next gen race by the end of this year … not even close. Maybe they will prove me wrong though.
January 15th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Anuban, it’s not possible for a PS3 to make it to the top 10, even the top 20, simply because there aren’t enough consoles on the market. Unless people start buying 3-4 copies of the same game for their PS3. The real war will be in late 2007, when there are enough PS3 and Wii consoles on the market to compete with the 360.
January 16th, 2007 at 1:01 am
I disagree … if the PS3 were actually being purchased to play games instead of being resold at a higher price for profit and they would have had a really great game (say God of War II for the PS3 instead of making it for the PS2) then I am positive they could have made it into the top 10 of one of the video game categories.
Top 10 video games numbers they could have reached with a great console worth buying and playing and a really good game:
360 CALL OF DUTY 3 - ACTIVISION 410.8 K
NDS YOSHI’S ISLAND 2 - NINTENDO 407.2 K
PS2 CALL OF DUTY 3 - ACTIVISION 365.3 K
These are the December numbers I believe so yes I think they could have reached those if over a million consoles have been sold as Sony suggests. But again that is just my opinion. You may be right Jim.
They did make it into the Top 10 Accessory Items coming at Number 5: “PS3 SIXAXIS WIRELESS CONTROLLER 336.0 K”
which definitely makes me think that their should have been one game that managed to sell at least 375-400K units.