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At first glance it might seem as if Nintendo’s hardware was the star performer in the somewhat disappointing US April video games market, but a quick look back to this time last year paints a far from happy picture for the Kyoto firm.
The headline figures show that Nintendo enjoyed what has become in recent years its normal dominance in the hardware market, with DS emerging as the top-selling machine with 440.8k units sold. Next up was Wii, whose sales reached 277.2k.
However, in the same month in 2009 DS sales hit a massive 1.04m units, meaning a year-on-year decrease of 600k units. Note, though, that last April saw the launch of the DSi, providing a big boost to the sales figures.
Month-on-month DS numbers were down by 259.2k. Wii sales were down 63k year-on-year.
There was better news for Sony (if you put aside the PSP’s 65.6k sales, an annual decline of just under 50 per cent) and Microsoft, whose home consoles both managed to improve unit sales year-on-year. PS3 shifted 180.8k, a 42.6 per cent rise on the 127k it sold in April 2009.
PS3’s year-to-date sales are up 37.2 per cent. It’s the ninth straight month of growth for Sony’s machine.
The continued momentum of our brand only further solidifies the value proposition we offer our consumers,” CEO and president Jack Tretton stated. We’re providing complete entertainment experiences so our consumers can enjoy what they want, how they want it.”
The Xbox 360 sold 185.8k units – a six per cent year-on-year increase. Microsoft claims that Xbox 360 accounted for $204m of sales throughout the month, the most of any platform holder.
Here are April’s NPD numbers in full:
DS – 440.8k
Wii – 277.2k
Xbox 360 – 185.4k
PS3 – 180.8k
PSP – 65.5k
