The NPD Group has released their hardware and software numbers for the month of December, representing sales for the United States for the five week period of November 30th to January 3rd.

Notables this month:

• DS breaks PS2's record for most hardware sold in a single month, becoming the first to sell 3 million units (PS2 was 2.7 million)
• Wii Play top seller for both this month and the entirety of 2008
• Mario Kart DS breaks into the top ten this month

Hardware numbers:
NDS: 3040.0k (608.0k per week)
WII: 2150.0k (430.0k per week)
360: 1440.0k (288.0k per week)
PSP: 1020.0k (204.0k per week)
PS3: 726.0k (145.2k per week)
PS2: 410.0k (82.0k per week)

2008 Year-to-Date in US:
WII: 10,170,000
NDS: 9,951,100
360: 4,748,400
PSP: 3,829,100
PS3: 3,544,800

Lifetime-to-Date in US:
NDS: 27,503,000
WII: 17,541,000
PSP: 14,247,000
360: 13,889,000
PS3: 6,788,000

Difference between December 2008 and 2007 Numbers
Platform: 2008 - 2007: +/-
NDS: 3,040,000 - 2,470,000: +570,000
WII: 2,150,000 - 1,350,000: +800,000
360: 1,440,000 - 1,260,000: +180,000
PSP: 1,020,000 - 1,060,000: -40,000
PS3: 726,000 - 797,600: -71,600
PS2: 410,000 - 1,100,000: -690,000

The top ten software went as follows:
01. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo) - 02/2007 - 1460k
02. [360] Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard) - 11/2008 - 1330k
03. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 05/2008 - 999k
04. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 04/2008 - 878k
05. [WII] Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision Blizzard) - 11/2008 - 859k
06. [360] Gears of War 2 (Microsoft) - 11/2008 - 745k
07. [360] Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts) - 11/2008 - 629k
08. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo) - 11/2005 - 540k
09. [PS3] Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard) - 11/2008 - 533k
10. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) - 11/2008 - 497k

The top ten software for the entire year of 2008 went as follows:
01. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo) - 02/2007 - 5.28M
02. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 04/2008 - 5.00M
03. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 05/2008 - 4.53M
04. [WII] Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo) - 03/2008 - 4.17M
05. [360] Grand Theft Auto IV (Take-Two Interactive) - 04/2008 - 3.29M
06. [360] Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard) - 11/2008 - 2.75M
07. [360] Gears of War 2 (Microsoft) - 11/2008 - 2.31M
08. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto IV (Take-Two Interactive) - 11/2008 - 1.89M
09. [360] Madden NFL 09 (Electronic Arts) - 08/2008 - 1.87M
10. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo) - 11/2005 - 1.65M

Industry Sales:
Dec-07 - Dec-08 - Change - Year-to-date Dec 07 - Year-to-Date Dec 08 - Change
Video Games - $4.84B - $5.29B - 9% - $17.97B - $21.33B - 19%
Video Game Hardware $1.84B - $1.88B - 2% - $7.06B - $7.81B - 11%
Video Game Software $2.39B - $2.75B - 15% - $8.67B - $10.96B - 26%
Video Game Accessories $612.8M - $662M - 8% - $2.25B - $2.57B - 14%

Things to point out:

• Mario Kart DS sneaks up on everybody and charts #8 for this holiday season, and charts #10 overall for the year, grossing over 1 million under the radar throughout the year.
• The top selling game of the year is Wii Play (WII) with 5.28 million copies sold, followed by Grand Theft Auto IV (360/PS3) with 5.18 million combined.
• The industry has fared well compared to where the numbers were last year, showing on 9% growth this month compared to December in 2007. For the year, industry revenue has grown 19% when compared to 2007, mostly due to increased software revenue.
• Plateaus reached:
  • DS surpasses 27 million sold in US
  • Wii surpasses 17 million sold in US
  • PSP surpasses 14 million sold in US
  • 360 surpasses 13 million sold in US
  • PSP overtakes PS3 in consoles sold year-to-date

Things to look for next month:

• Not much, considering the end of the holiday season

[November 2008 NPD]