NPD Tallies US Game Revenue in Dec 11', Annually: Consoles Dead in Dec - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 12 January 2012 / 10,439 Views
NPD has announced December 2011 and total annual figures for the US video game market. Starting with the overall totals:
Total figures for 2011 were $17.0b, down 11% from $18.6b in 2010. Yearly hardware declined to $5.6b from $6.3b, another drop of 11%. Software fell 6%, to $8.8b from $9.4b, even with HD software growing by 9% on a revenue basis from 2010 to 2011. Given that total hardware grew by almost 30m units in 2011 to an already huge installed base across the seven video game machines, its pretty impressive that there was still a decline. The HD market is still a bit healther for software but in absolute terms the combined X360 + PS3 bases grew by roughly 35% from 2010 to 2011, and software grew by much less than that. In previous years the growth has tracked much more similarly. Accessories also fell to $2.6b from almost $3.0b in 2010, yet another 11% drop.
December saw major declines from 2010 to 2011 relative to the rest of the year:
Hardware, software, and accessories all dropped sharply from December 2010 to December 2011. On a percentage basis, the hardware drop is most concerning, given that the decline was a staggering 28% even with the 3DS coming on strongly.
Update: New estimates in lieu of Pachter claiming 6.3m units of hardware sold in December 2011, and Wii at 1.06m. Red figures are pure guesses, blue data are inferences based on known data:
Based on Microsoft's data, and Nintendo's previous press-release it looks like X360 declined to a bit over 1.7m in December 2011 from 1.86m in the previous December, PS3 declined from 1.21m, and Wii declined from 2.36m. Microsoft says it outsold Wii and / or PS3 by 2.7m units in 2011 - and so with Microsoft's figures reaching 7.3m in 2011 (up 10% from 2010), we can surmise that Nintendo sold roughly 4.55m Wiis (down massively from the 7.07m in 2010), and that Sony sold roughly 4.55m PS3s in 2011 (up almost 5% from 2010) given Microsoft cites 46% share in December console sales as well. Going by Nintendo's previously mentioned statement for December, 3DS likely sold about 1.5m units in December as well.
NPD also noted that only 3DS and DS hardware increased on a weekly basis from November to December. Since November was four weeks and December was five weeks, there were essentially three transitions from November to December. Wii (and I reckon PS2 and PSP) likely stayed flat from November to December on an average weekly basis (although we do know Wii spiked enormously for Black Friday). PS3 and X360 however fell 35,000 and 85,000 per week respectively from November to December (again due to Black Friday being enormous). 3DS and DS in contrast, grew on a weekly basis despite big Black Friday promotions in November.
Given that X360 sold 1.7m in November 2011, with Wii at 860,000 and PS3 at 900,000 in November, the December figures are massively dissapointing for all three platforms, as December is typically two times larger than November for hardware.
On another note, hardware sales were off by over 25% from the peak figures seen earlier in the generation during 2011.
2007: 29.67m (without GBA)
2008: 34.7m
2009: 34.2m
2010: 29.2m
2011: 25.8m (give or take 200,000)
Consoles no longer look to be growing either:
Despite the cheapest price points ever for Wii, X360 and PS3 in December 2011, the three systems are each trending down now. That does not bode well for 2012, especially since Wii & PS3 each had a price cut, and retail discounts. Overall console sales in 2011 fell to 16.6m from about 18.9m in 2010 - on the Wii decline, but the bad signs are there for the other consoles too. The sudden drop off isn't too surprising - we're now at 90m+ current era console penetration in the US, close to one system per American household. PS2 + Xbox + GC sales were only 70m - so even with 50, 60, or 70 percent growth from 70m, we're near the end of the cycle. PSP and DS will end up at 75m or so from 40m GBAs - so 60% growth for the consoles looks like a safe estimate.
X360 is continuing to outpace PS2 late in its life cycle - but Wii has now joined PS3 in pacing below PS2 late in its life. Lifetime to date figures for X360 are now 32.64m in 74 months, compared to 35.48m for PS2 in the same period. Wii is at 38.71m in 62 months, compared to 30.70m in that time for PS2. The PS2 reached 38.7m in 83 months - Wii is currently 21 months ahead of the PS2 pace. That figure should erode fairly quickly over the next few months though. PS2 reached 32.64m in 65 months - so X360 is currently nine months behind the PS2 pace. PS3 in contrast to the Wii and X360, is now almost 11m behind the PS3 pace through 62 months and continues to lose ground.
According to the NPD's software tracking it was a big year for shooters and dancing games (images via Industry Gamers).
Figures for December, even in a down year, are of course enormous and so plenty of games outside the top 10 did well for the month.
Looking ahead, 2012 could be a better year for hardware than 2011, if 3DS, Wii U, and Vita all perform well. Otherwise, total hardware figures should be fairly similar to 2011, with software flat or down again.
Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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Next gen I am ready!
Both are down YoY and it seems that it will be even worse this year.
Yeah I was a bit low on my inferences - have adjusted everything up in lieu of Pachter's comment.
The sales were better on PS3 and 360... but the Price cutting on PS3, 3Ds and some accesories give a drop on overall money.
There are something wrong... Pachter said "Consumers bought just 6.3 million consoles last month, down from 8.4 million a year ago"... 6.3 million and not 5.7m like the article shows.
sales would have been considered great had we not had that ridiculous November. Put things into perspective. PS3 and 360 still had a great year. Vgchartz and shipment info got all our expectations up and thus everything is all gloomy now despite the good sales.
Anyway battlefield 3 overtracked, or skyrim and just dance 3 undertracked because we have battlefield at 5.11mil, just dance at 4.7mil and skyrim at 4.3mil. Rest seems accurate since npd doesn't track gears bundles.
I'm only referring to the 360, ps3, and 3ds when I said great sales btw.
Seems the Wii U comes at the best time for a new console ever
@ VGC :
Here are the best selling games (multi-platform) of 2011 in the USA according to VGC data :
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360+PS3+PC+Wii+DS) : 11.87
- Kinect Adventures! (360) : 5.12
- Battlefield 3 (360+PS3+PC) : 5.02
- Just Dance 3 (Wii+360+PS3) : 4.27
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360+PS3+PC) : 4.14
-
Madden NFL 12 (360+PS3+Wii+PSP) : 3.94 (minus the first week of 2012)
Comments :- Battlefield 3 is 2 places under on NPD
- I added Kinect Adventures to be exhaustive but it's bundled with HW
- Batman is above Gears 3 on NPD instead of under on VGC
- Contrary to WW 2011 SW data Kinect Adventures is in the top 6, Skyrim is just under JD3 instead of just above and there's Madden 12 instead of FIFA 12.
Not a good christmas, I think it has to do with no excitement with these consoles. They've been out for 5 to 6 years so I can't really blame them. Just look at the BIG releases this year, Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3, Zelda Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3, Battlefield 3, Batman Arkham City, ect.. These are great titles but we've seen all of these series before on the consoles. So there wasn't really a big incentive to buy any of these consoles for christmas.
I hope they bring new consoles soon. Both the PS3 and 360 have increased this year, which is good, but I don't think they should expect anymore rise. The Wii U, even if it doesn't sell exceptionally well, will take away from the 360 and ps3 sales. So by not releasing new consoles may seem smart now, in a few years they will regret it.
shut up, you will won't see next gen until 2014 at least
"PS3 in contrast to the Wii and X360, is now almost 11m behind the PS-->3<--- pace through 62 months and continues to lose ground."
Typo where the arrows are pointing.
Apologies if it seems like I'm criticising you for getting a single number wrong in an otherwise brilliant article, just thought you might wanna change it
thanks for the info,lets see what the 3ds,wiiu and vita are made of this year
The Games industry doesn't live in a vacuum. Gaming isn't the only industry that saw a tough month. Big ticket electronics also too a dip, as did electronics on a whole. It was one of the first years that small gadgets didn't help bolster electronic sales.
The dip in sales isn't reflective of gaming or where the gaming industry is this generation. It's reflective of the economy here in the US. Shoppers in huge numbers took advantage of every Black Fridy and Cyber Monday deal they could get their hands on, and then essentially stopped shopping.
Holiday shopper do not respond to gaming trends as much as commentors on sites do, they respond to their pocket books and wallets. The best thing the industry can do at this moment is cut gaming system prices to drive US spending. Assuming this means more then it does, and flooding the market this year with new models would prove disaterous.
Next gen? No! We don't need this until 2014 at least. About PC graphics, Slight difference in all aspects. I do not know how these PC bitches are boasting for better graphics, as if it were miles away from Ps3 and 360.
"Despite the cheapest price points ever for Wii, X360 and PS3 in December 2011, the three systems are each trending down now"
For 360, this is absolutely backwards. 360s price was up to 50% higher in Dec than November due to some very aggressive price promotions that Microsoft ran at a LOT of different retailers during the week of Black Friday and the week after.
This had the effect of a price drop and artificially moved a whole bunch of units from December to November. I would argue that MS is in the best place of all the console makers which is what makes their next gen timing decision so difficult and so intriguing.
Knowing MS, they have fought so hard to get here they will not take the same approach that Sony did with this generation and be smug about it and assume that their install base will carry them through the next gen.
Good sales but bad margins but still profitable. I do not see this translating into new console announcements at E3. My feeling is they need to eek out another year. Especially if the emphasis is moving to the cloud.
Everyone is bashing on about bad sales... Last year we had move and kinect both of witch game with multi million advertising campaigns.
This year MS has not droped the price of its console and this is XBox territory.
I'm all realism how can.we expect the wii to still sell super well when everyone has one practically. The wii sales were anomaly huge and fast and so too will its decent be.
In general id say this year has been amazing. All three companies are making brilliant margins and profits.
General the XBox did as well this year as last without the billions that went into kinect and without a price drop. Id defiantly say they were the winners here.
Get ready for next gen hype but not the nextgen yet... I think MS are ready rm go
Wasn't the 360 on sale for the entire moth of December though?
Horrible sales. Next Gen is absolutely coming next year.
Well duh. It's called the Wii U.
Me sad :-c
anyone else hate Pachter?
There is a method to his madness.
I see what you've done here!
But gamers don't like these type of comments, look at the ratings!
one thump down is from me! ;)
