Which console took the top spot away from Nintendo this month?
Hardware
360 – 443,500
NDS – 398,400
Wii – 253,900
PS3 – 214,500
PSP – 84,000
Software
1. 360 – NCAA Football 11, 368,000
2. PS3 – NCAA Football 11, 298,800
3. 360 – Crackdown 2, 208,800
4. Wii – Super Mario Galaxy 2, 193,000
5. NDS – LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, 141,700
6. 360 – Red Dead Redemption
7. Wii – LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, 133,000+
8. NDS – Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, 132,000+
9. Wii – New Super Mario Bros. Wii, 128,000+
10. 360 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2*
*Number includes all SKUs except those bundled with game systems.
+These sales figures and chart positions provided by Nintendo, not NPD.
^The numbers on the right represent units sold.
For the first time in around two years, a non-Nintendo console moved the most units last month; bolstered by Madden fever and a Slim redesign, the Xbox 360 took the top spot this month. My guess is that it will pull this off for another month, as Madden NFL 11 gets released and moves a lot of systems along with the new Slim 4GB and 250GB options; Metroid: Other M may move some Wii systems, but it comes out on the very last day of August, too late to make a difference in the August numbers.
Despite not taking the top spot, Nintendo reached another milestone: this July, NOA surpassed 30 million Wii consoles sold in the United States, a milestone that the 360 has yet to accomplish. Two Mario games show up on the top 10, along with, surprisingly, two different Nintendo SKUs of LEGO Harry Potter, which surpassed my personal sales expectations quite nicely. I’m glad to see the occasional third party clean house on the Wii.
The top three spots, of course, go to some big-name new releases, and the same thing is going to happen next month with Madden. The real battle is going to happen this fall, when Nintendo unleashes their massive arsenal of games on the public; let’s hope that releasing all the games so close together doesn’t mean some of them get lost in the shuffle. Only time will tell.
