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[Update 2/12/10: Added Top 20 console software sales chart]
It's Mario's world, we just live it in. That's the lesson to be learned from the recently released January 2010 NPD console video game sales data. Following a blockbuster December, the Big N continues to cash in at retail in both console and software sales. Leading the way was the company's cornerstone title, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which we expect to see making appearances in the top ten for the rest of the year. Nintendo racked up four of the ten best selling titles, with Wii Fit Plus, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Sports Resort selling impressive numbers.
There was good news for other companies as well, like beleaguered giant Electronic Arts, which had strong debuts with Mass Effect 2 and Army of Two: The 40th Day coming in at numbers two and eight, respectively. Though it was released on January 26, Mass Effect 2 managed to shift 572,100 units before the end of January on its way to double platinum status.
Spots nine and ten were taken up by some under-the-radar hits: Ubisoft's wildly successful Just Dance and the debut of THQ's apocalyptic action/adventure Darksiders, which despite being a new property and a low-profile marketing campaign shifted 171,200 units. Oh, and there was also a little game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that managed to grab the fourth and seventh spot and squeak out a combined 585,700 in sales on 360 and PS3.
On the hardware side, Nintendo whooped the competition, holding down the top two spots with the Wii and DS, which sold 465,000 and 422,000 units respectively. Microsoft reclaimed the number three spot by selling 322,000 Xbox 360s, while Sony drifted back into fourth place with 276,900 PS3 units sold. Sony's other hardware continued to hang in there, with the PSP selling 100,100 units and the ancient PS2 still managing 41,600 units.
For an industry already feeling the effects of the economic downturn, there was cause for concern in January. Overall, total software sales for January 2010 came to $1.17 billion, down 13 percent as compared to the same quarter in 2009. Hardware sales totaled $353.7 million, off 21 percent from last year's mark.
[Update]
While we don't have actually data on the number of units sold for places 11-20, it is interesting to see that a couple of new franchises did manage to make the charts in January: Sony's online military shooter MAG (released late in the month on the 26th) and Sega's superb Japanese action title Bayonetta (which released on the 5th). Also, Sony's God of War I & II Collection (released back in November) managed a reappearance on the charts, indicating the high level of interest in Sony's upcoming God of War III. And, apparently, there are still humans on Earth that don't already own Mario Kart DS and Wii Play.
NPD Console Software Sales, January 2010
1 New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) -- 656,700 units sold
2 Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360) -- 572,100 units sold
3 Wii Fit Plus (w/Balance Board) (Wii) -- 555,700 units sold
4 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) -- 326,700 units sold
5 Mario Kart Wii (w/Wheel) (Wii) -- 310,900 units sold
6 Wii Sports Resort (w/Wii Motion Plus) (Wii) -- 297,600 units sold
7 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) -- 259,00 units sold
8 Army of Two: The 40th Day (Xbox 360) -- 246,500 units sold
9 Just Dance (Wii) -- 191,900 units sold
10 Darksiders (Xbox 360) -- 171,200 units sold
NPD Console Hardware Sales, January 2010
1 Wii -- 465,800 units sold
2 Nintendo DS -- 422,200 units sold
3 Xbox 360 -- 332,800 units sold
4 PlayStation 3 -- 276,900 units sold
5 PSP -- 100,100 units sold
6 PlayStation 2 -- 41,600 units sold
NPD Top 20 Console Software Sales Chart, January 2010 (no unit numbers)
1 New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
2 Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)
3 Wii Fit Plus (w/Balance Board) (Wii)
4 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)
5 Mario Kart Wii (w/Wheel) (Wii)
6 Wii Sports Resort (w/Wii Motion Plus) (Wii)
7 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
8 Army of Two: The 40th Day (Xbox 360)
9 Just Dance (Wii)
10 Darksiders (Xbox 360)
11 Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3)
12 Wii Play (w/Remote) (Wii)
13 MAG (PS3)
14 Darksiders (PS3)
15 EA Sports Active (Wii)
16 Mario Kart DS (NIntendo DS)
17 Bayonetta (Xbox 360)
18 New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo DS)
19 Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Nintendo DS)
20 God of War I & II Collection (PS3)
Source: NPD
Email the author Matt Helgeson, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
first yay nintendo now to bring star fox to the wii
old dinosaur machine with landfill ready games.
America, you have let Bayonetta down. 360 owners, I am disappoint. I didn't expect the PS3 version to chart but the 360 one really should've.
wow, xbox 360 beat the ps3 even with the slim...
I agree with gamergirl89. Go Nintendo and give us some Star fox Wii plz!
nintendo make more awesome games, not one a year and brag about it until the next one
Will we ever see a day where there's no 4 month+ old Wii games on the NPD top ten? Sadly, probably not.
Darn! I was hoping to see Bayonetta up there. I bet it's better than all those games. Especially Darksiders.
I agree bayonetta is amazing!! But i still don't understand how you button mash on a 360 controller
and y isn't MAG on here?
HA mass effect take that =P
Mass Effect take that? It almost sold as many unites in 5 days as MW2 on both consoles and New Super Mario Bros. did in a month. I'd say that's pretty *** impressive.
and people say the xbox 360 and ps3 are better the wii beats them both in sales.
God, I don't even know where to begin. Bayonetta is absent, yet some piece of trash like Just Dance made the top 10?!?!? A tradgedy indeed...
@Connor: Sorry, but higher sales doesn't make the Wii better. Especially if you look at why it sells better. It is ridiculously simple to control and a pop culture fad which makes it appealing to the masses. The few games of worth (i.e. Zelda, Metroid, etc.) are few and far between; developers don't seem to think it is worth their time to make a good game for the Wii because most people who own one will buy it regardless of its quality.
That said, the Xbox and the PS3 are vastly superior pieces of hardware in every way except for "motion control" which I honestly don't miss having. Finally, if having a smaller crowd of people who actually care about good games means that the 360 and PS3 continue to perform the way they have, then so be it.
I'm not trying to bash people who love the Wii, I'm just tired of the garbage people are willing to accept as games finding success in a market where legitimate game makers are struggling.
Great numbers for the industry.
I grew up with nintendo, my first system was a super nintendo and to this day some of my favorite games were mad by nintendo. That being said they have kinda let me down recently. the things i used to love about nintendo have kinda dwindled. besides the recent new super mario bros. for Wii, there hasn't been a lot of good games coming out. i keep finding myself wanting to sell my Wii. Honestly i don't know why they are at the top of the charts.
Not surprising New super mario bros have been put out a long time ago for the Wii, because I use to love Nintendo but they started letting us older gamers down glad they put the game in.
I was hoping No More Heroes 2 would be a surprise #10. I'm dissapointed. Buy it, NOW! If you haven't already of course.
@liegia
No this does not neccessarily mean that Wii games are "better" for selling higher, but just remember back to when you were a kid and the complete garbage games you played and enjoyed playing...think really hard ok now go back and play those games...still enjoyable? Just remember gamers have to start somewhere...
Ok let's do this experiment once let's look at the metacritic score for each Wii game
New Super Mario Bros recieved and 87
Wii Fit Plus an 80
Mario Kart an 82
Wii Sports Resort an 80
Just Dance 47
ok and at the non Wii games
COD MW2 94
Army of Two 74
Mass Effect 2 94
Dark Siders 83
now the averages
The Wii Games get a 75 as an average however Just Dance throws the average off without just dance it's an 82
The Non Wii Games get an 85
according to critcs there is very little difference between Wii games and "core" games...so yes sales do have something to do with good games with the exception of Just Dance