Weekly Analysis, 21 August 2010 - Wii and PS3 in Virtual Tie
by William D'Angelo, posted on 27 August 2010 / 5,363 Views
Overview – Hardware sales are down week on week. The Wii and PlayStation 3 are in a virtual tie, with only 1,000 units separating them. Year on year sales are up substantially for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, while sales are down for the Wii, DS, and PSP. Software sales are also down week on week after the release of Madden NFL 11 last week. The top 5 games sold over 100,000 each and the top 20 sold over 35,000 each.
Worldwide Hardware – Week on week sales are down for everyone, ranging from 6,000 for the PlayStation 3 to 20,000 for the DS. This is due to the bump that Madden NFL 11 caused last week and sales are generally lowest in the month of August.
Year on year sales show the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 continue to outperform where they were a year ago, up 56,000 and 81,000 respectively. The Wii is down 42,000 as it has had less software releases in the first 8 months of the year than its competitors. Handhelds continue to be down year on year as the DS has fallen 120,000 and the PSP 48,000. Expect handheld sales to continue to be down over 30% for the rest of the year.
During the last 10 weeks of home console sales the Xbox 360 has outperformed its rivals for 9 of those weeks on the strength of the newly released 360S model. It has outsold the PlayStation 3 for 10 straight week and the Wii 9 straight weeks. PlayStation 3 sales have caught up to the Wii to be in a virtual tie. Expect sales to be close between them, until the holiday’s start kicking in where the Wii in the past has received a bigger boost than the PS3. The Xbox 360 looks like it will remain in the lead until the end of September as Halo: Reach is set to boost console sales for a couple of weeks.
Worldwide Software – Three games debuted in the top 20 on the week. A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode R (PS3) debuts at the top with sales of 216,000. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days for the Xbox 360 debuts at number 9 with sales of 59,000. The PlayStation 3 version of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days debuts at number 13 with sales of 52,000.
Two other games debuted in the top 50. Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar (DS) debuts at number 25 with sale of 28,000 in America. Chou Jigen Game: Neptune (PS3) debuts at number 28 with sales of 23,000 in Japan.
Rounding out the top 10 at positions two through five are Madden NFL 11 for the X360 with sales of 141,000, Madden NFL 11 for the PS3 with sales of 126,000, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (PC) with sales of 123,000, and Wii Sports with sales of 120,000. At positions six through eight are Wii Sports Resort with sales of 95,000, Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii with sales of 84,000 and Wii Party with sales of 68,000. At the tenth position is Pokémon Heart Gold / Soul Silver Version (DS) with sales of 56,000.
Overall software sales are down week on week across the board. The Xbox 360 is down the most falling 29% as Madden NFL 11 debuted this week and only one game debuted this week that did not offset the drop from Madden. The PlayStation 3 fell 13% as a major game debuted during the week to help offset the drop from Madden. The Wii is down 14% as Madden didn’t boost sales that much from the previous week. The PSP dropped 21% and the DS fell 12%.
Year on year is a mix with some increasing while others fell. The PlayStation 3 is up 44%, while the Wii and DS are down, 13% and 11% respectively. The Xbox 360 and PSP are flat year on year.
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