Americas Sales for the Two Weeks Ending May 23, 2009

by Jacob Mazel, posted on 27 May 2009 / 3,552 Views

Jacob Mazel

With Vgchartz revamped, Americas data for the two weeks ending May 23, 2009 has now arrived. For the second week of the period, a number of new games pushed hardware sales up from the week ending May 16, 2009. Nonetheless, both weeks were down compared to the middle of May 2008 when the impacts of Wii Fit, Grand Theft Auto IV, Mario Kart Wii, and other titles were lifting industry sales levels to record seasonal pacing. The week ending May 16, 2009 may end up being the quietest week for video games over the entirety of 2009, as PS2, PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 all sold fewer than 106,000 units, and the Wii barely managed to stay above 200,000 units. Just on a few big releases for this week, worldwide hardware sales are up significantly this week, even without Vgchartz data from available just yet.

System	5.16.2009	5.9.2009	Change
Wii	90,702	91,182	-1%
DS	125,122	133,799	-7%
X360	49,528	46,813	+6%
PS3	36,316	33,266	+9%
PSP	28,453	29,110	-2%
PS2	33,297	34,922	-5%

System	5.23.2009	5.16.2009	Change
Wii	120,788	90,702	+33%
DS	129,746	125,122	+4%
X360	56,511	49,528	+14%
PS3	41,699	36,316	+15%
PSP	30,424	28,453	+7%
PS2	35,682	33,297	+7%

In the second week of the period, three games – UFC 2009 Undisputed for PS3 and Xbox 360, Punch Out and EA Sports Active for Wii – provided big lifts for the three current generation consoles. Both versions of UFC 2009 and the Wii games debuted to sales of 100,000 units. With more people than usual shopping for the hot titles, PS2, PSP and DS also saw modest rises for the week. However, in the wake of much more massive software launches in May 2008, hardware sales remain down for most platforms both weeks.

System	5.16.2009	5.17.2008	Y.O.Y.
Wii	90,702	115,234	-22%
DS	125,122	146,173	-14%
X360	49,528	46,340	+7%
PS3	36,316	49,551	-27%
PSP	28,453	52,040	-45%
PS2	33,297	29,329	+14%

System	5.23.2009	5.24.2008	Y.O.Y.
Wii	120,788	357,111	-66%
DS	129,746	148,147	-13%
X360	56,511	53,843	+5%
PS3	41,699	45,339	-8%
PSP	30,424	53,037	-43%
PS2	35,682	27,255	+31%

Except for the PS2 and Xbox 360 which are up a few thousands units each compared to Mid May 2008 because they cost less in Mid May 2009, the industry continues to see hardware sales drop year over year. During the May 24, 2008 week, the Wii Fit launch accompanied a huge shipment of Wiis. As a result, the Wii was down nearly 70% year over year on Wii Fit week, despite the Punch Out/ EA Sports Active lift over the previous week.

Top Selling Software for the Two Weeks Ending May 23, 2009

May 16

	Wii	Xbox 360	PS3
1	Wii Fit	Sacred 2: Fallen Angel	Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
2	Mario Kart Wii	X Men Origins: Wolverine U.E.	X Men Origins: Wolverine U.E.
3	Wii Play	Battlestations: Pacific	MLB 09: The Show
4	Lego Star Wars: T.C.S.	Halo 3	Killzone 2
5	Gold's Gym: Cardio Workout	Call of Duty: World at War	Resident Evil 5
6	Guitar Hero: World Tour	Resident Evil 5	Call of Duty: World at War
7	My Fitness Coach	Major League Baseball 2k9	The Godfather II
8	X Men Origins: Wolverine	The Godfather II	Grand Theft Auto IV
9	Link's Crossbow Training	Left 4 Dead	Soul Calibur IV
10	Guitar Hero: Metallica	Vin Diesel: Wheelman	Valkyria Chronicles

May 23

	Wii	Xbox 360	PS3
1	EA Sports Active	UFC 2009 Undisputed	UFC 2009 Undisputed
2	Punch Out	Bionic Commando	Bionic Commando
3	Wii Fit	Terminator Salvation	Terminator Salvation
4	Mario Kart Wii	Sacred 2: Fallen Angel	X Men Origins: Wolverine U.E.
5	Wii Play	Halo 3	Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
6	Boom Blox: Bash Party	X Men Origins: Wolverine U.E.	MLB 09: The Show
7	My Fitness Coach	Resident Evil 5	Call of Duty: World at War
8	Lego Star Wars: T.C.S.	Major League Baseball 2k9	Killzone 2
9	Gold's Gym: Cardio Workout	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare	Resident Evil 5
10	Guitar Hero: World Tour	Resident Evil 5	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Notes:

- Seven games have sold over 1m units in the Americas.

- Punch Out, despite topping 100,000 units in its first week is a bit of a flop relative to expectations as sales were not tremendously higher than preorders as is usually the case with highly in-demand titles. Still, it’s difficult to call any title likely to easily top 1m units a flop in absolute terms.

- UFC 2009 Undisputed was the top selling title of the week, managing to sell over 300,000 units across Xbox 360 and PS3.

- Bionic Commando debuted to sales of less than 60,000 units across Xbox 360 and PS3. It should eventually top 200,000 in the Americas.

- In the week ending May 16, 2009 only two games (excluding Wii Sports) sold over 50,000 units in the Americas. The following week, six games did.

- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS has now topped 500,000 worldwide.

- The portable software market has just about returned to seasonal levels in the wake of the DSi launch. During DSi launch week, 32 games sold over 10,000 units for the DS. For the week ending May 23, only 12 did.

- Wii Sports is now in over 45 million homes worldwide.

- A total of 104 games sold over 5,000 units for the week ending May 16. The following week, 125 games sold over 5,000 units.

- Charting Million Sellers in the top 200 for the week ending May 23: Wii – 15, Xbox 360 – 17, PS3 – 6.

- To date, 49,286,972 Wiis, Xbox 360s, and PS3s have been sold in the Americas. Of those machines sold, about 47.3% are Wiis, about 35.3% are Xbox 360s, and about 17.5% are PS3s.

Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com

23 Comments

luckey (on 17 September 2009)

Love [url="http://www.ghdhairsales.co.uk/"]ghd hair straightener[/url] ? Want to feel gorgeous? Then you have found heaven. Here at [url="http://www.ghdhairsales.co.uk/"]GHD Styler[/url] we are devoted to those who desire flawless hair and want to always look their best.GHD MK4 Kiss, [url="http://www.ukghdstore.co.uk/GHD-IV-MK4-Kiss.html"]GHD MK4 Kiss[/url] Hair Straighteners On Sale. GHD MK4 Gold, [url="http://www.ghdhairsales.co.uk/GHD-IV-MK4-Gold.html"]GHD MK4 Gold[/url] Hair Straighteners On Sale. Large of discounted [url="http://www.ghdhairsales.co.uk/GHD-IV-MK4-Gold.html"]GHD MK4 Gold[/url] are provided in our GHD MK4 UK store. The GHD Gold Hair Straighteners are all highest quality and lowest price. Save 50% When 2009 Christmas day comes, [url="http://www.uschristmasgifts.com" title="christmas gift"]Christmas Gifts[/url] store provide variety christmas gifts for different recipient.

Show replies (0)

Pyramid Head (on 01 June 2009)

^^^ not surprised considering i just got EA Active

Show replies (0)

Cueil (on 30 May 2009)

Wii doesnt' need another dominating year... it's time for PS360 to make inroads into their market share. That's how I feel anyway

Show replies (0)

arsenal009 (on 29 May 2009)

I like the picture with all 3 flags in one :D

Show replies (0)

Ail (on 28 May 2009)

a 30% boost for 1 week is quite a bit far from the 100% boost needed. I mean thanks to that boost this week Wii sales are only going to be down 50% YoY compared to the same week in 2008.

Show replies (0)

TheSource (on 28 May 2009)

Nope Ail, he said in the Summer and Fall they'd exceed 2008 levels after Wii Sports Resort and other titles release to (direct quote) "drive the market". Wii Sports Resort and whatever else is in store should be a lot bigger than Punch Out and EA Active, and those two gave Wii a 33% spike this week. Iwata could be wrong, but you jump at every opportunity to blast that 26m prediction, and your gonna have to wait almost another year to be proven right or wrong.

Show replies (0)

Dark Chaos (on 28 May 2009)

Why is there two Resident Evil 5s is 360s top ten?

Show replies (0)

jv103 (on 28 May 2009)

Did anyone actually believe that punchout would be like brawl or mario kart? I never understood the big deal with punch out. Sure it was fantastic when I was a kid - but to pay $50 bucks for a remake with a whole 4 new characters seems a little absurd. Maybe I'm somehow missing the point.

Show replies (0)

bardicverse (on 28 May 2009)

Silly people and their "flop" labeling after 1 week of sales. They just don't get it, do they?

Show replies (0)

alvaroaze (on 28 May 2009)

@ECC: its all about the expectation. almost everyone expected punchout to sell a lot more than UFC. thats why PO is a flop and UFC is a sucess.

Show replies (0)

Kai Master (on 28 May 2009)

Sad for PO!

Show replies (0)

Ail (on 28 May 2009)

Wasn't Iwata's expectations that Wii sales would be bellow 2008 level until end of May and then they would return to that level ? If so it looks to me like he was dead wrong and Nintendo isn't better at predicting sales of its system than most analysts...

Show replies (0)

Toddifer (on 28 May 2009)

I was a bit surprised to see Punch-Out!'s numbers as well (thought they were a tad low), but I'm sure it'll carry on for a while...I also thought it was worth pointing out that six of the top ten games on the Wii are 3rd-party titles, which I think is fairly significant.