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

Notables this month:

• UFC 2009 Undisputed has a good debut
• Wii sales see harsh drop from May 2008

Hardware numbers:
NDS: 633.5k (158.38k per week)
WII: 289.5k (72.38k per week)
360: 175.0k (43.75k per week)
PS3: 131.0k (32.75k per week)
PS2: 117.0k (29.25k per week)
PSP: 100.4k (25.1k per week)

2009 Year-to-Date in US:
NDS: 3,335,300
WII: 2,662,700
360: 1,380,000
PS3: 955,200
PSP: 755,700
PS2: 633,200

Lifetime-to-Date in US:
NDS: 30,876,500
WII: 20,202,500
360: 15,240,000
PSP: 14,096,400
PS3: 7,749,000

Difference between May 2009 and 2008 Numbers
Platform: 2009 - 2008: +/- : % Change
NDS: 633,500 - 453,000: +180,500 : +39.85%
WII: 289,500 - 675,000: -385,500 : -57.11%
360: 175,000 - 187,000: -12,000 : -6.42%
PS3: 131,000 - 209,000: -78,000 : -37.32%
PS2: 117,000 - 133,000: -16,000 : -12.03%
PSP: 100,400 - 182,000: -81,600 : -44.84%

The top ten software went as follows:
01. [360] UFC 2009 Undisputed (THQ) - 05/2009 - 679.6k
02. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 05/2008 - 352.8k
03. [WII] EA Sports Active (Electronic Arts) - 05/2009 - 345.8k
04. [PS3] UFC 2009 Undisputed (THQ) - 05/2009 - 334.4k
05. [PS3] inFamous (Sony) - 05/2009 - 175.9k
06. [NDS] Pokémon Platinum (Nintendo) - 03/2009 - 168.9k
07. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 04/2008 - 158.3k
08. [WII] Punch-Out!! (Nintendo) - 05/2009 - 156.9k
09. [360] X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Activision Blizzard) - 05/2009 - 120.7k
10. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo) - 02/2007 - 109.8k

Things to point out:

• Industry as a whole saw decreases from May 2008
  • Last year had the strength of Wii Fit launch
  • PS3 for the seventh straight month sells less year-on-year
• UFC 2009 Undisputed combined total: 1014k
  • 67.0/33.0 split 360/PS3
• Breakdown of top ten:
  • Software platforms: WII - 5, 360 - 2, PS3 - 2, NDS - 1
  • Software publishers: Nintendo - 5, THQ - 2, Activison Blizzard - 1, Electronic Arts - 1, Sony - 1
  • Software totals by platform: WII - 1123.6k, 360 - 800.3k, PS3 - 510.3k, NDS - 168.9k
• Plateaus reached:
  • NDS surpasses 3 million year-to-date
  • WII surpasses 20 million lifetime-to-date
  • PSP surpasses 14 million lifetime-to-date

Things to look for next month:

• Notable new releases:
  • [WII/360/PS3/NDS/PSP/PS2/PC] Ghostbusters: The Video Game
  • [WII/360/PS3/NDS/PSP/PS2/PC] Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
  • [WII/360/PS3/PSP/PS2] Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10
  • [360/PS3] Fight Night Round 4
  • [360/PS3] Prototype
  • [WII] EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis
  • [WII] The Conduit
  • [WII] Wii MotionPlus

[April 2009 NPD]

The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1B since August 2007. May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months in any given year for the industry in general.

Every category declined versus a year ago with the exception of portable hardware sales which was bolstered by the continued strong sales of the Nintendo DS including both the DSi and the Lite.

Unit sales declined less than dollar sales did. The dollar sales decline was exacerbated by a decline in average retail prices for almost all of the categories.


The DS was the top-selling hardware platform for the month. There is a lot of new DS content coming to market this month for a wide variety of gamers, so we should see strong hardware sales continue.


Two third-party titles had a strong showing in May. UFC Undisputed had a great launch selling over a million units across both platforms, while EA Sports Active Bundle, a Wii exclusive, made it into the top 5. There are more new releases in this month's top 10 list than we have seen for some time. As we mentioned last month, it's a great time to release new IP, illustrated by May's strong debuts of EA's Sports Active and Sony's InFAMOUS.

While there were some very strong new releases this month along with continued strong sales of evergreen games, this month's top 10 games sold 2.6 million units combined, whereas last year the top 10 sold 3.7 million units. Again this illustrates how tough the comparisons are to last year.

Looking ahead to June, there are some promising games coming out this month between Sims 3 (PC), Prototype, Red Faction, Virtua Tennis, Ghostbusters, Transformers and Tiger Woods just to name a few. At E3, it was notable how many games were targeted to the tween girl demographic, and this June will see a number of games introduced for girls as well. June comparisons are still likely to be tough, but the wide variety of new content could help reinvigorate things somewhat.

Tiger Woods titles are typically released in August or September. It will be interesting to watch how the title performs when it's not competing at retail with Madden, and with the impact of the Wii MotionPlus for the Wii version. Releasing it during the month when the U.S. Open (and consequently Tiger) is getting air time can't hurt either.