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Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim Top U.S. November Sales
Total U.S. game sales for the month of November hit $3 billion and increased just .4 percent year over year, according to retail tracking firm NPD. The reporting period for the month began 10/30/11 and ended 11/26/11.
Here are the known hardware sales for the month (this will be updated):
Xbox 360: 1.7M
PlayStation 3: 900,000
Wii: 860,000
3DS : 795,000
DS: 350,000
“This is the fourth consecutive month in which the Xbox 360 has been the top selling hardware system," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The gap between 360 sales and sales of the next best selling platform was the largest we’ve seen since December 2008 when the Nintendo DS was the top selling system.”
According to NPD, this month marked the best November on record for sales of new physical content. November 2008 was the previous record holder. On the software side, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception sold 700,000 units in the month, NPD revealed to Game Informer, coming in at #7 behind leaders Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The first month sales for Modern Warfare 3 were up 7 percent over last year's Black Ops.
Here are the top 10 new physical game sales for November:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)**
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)**
- Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)
- Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360)
- Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)**
- Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)**
- Saints Row: The Third (360, PS3, PC)**
- The Legend of Zelda: SkywardSword (WII)**
- Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)**
**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)
Frazier notes the following in her report:
“In one month, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is just about half a million units shy of matching Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in lifetime sales. Its first month performance was a five-fold increase over Oblivion’s first month sales. The game garnered outstanding review scores.”
“When looking at the top 10 best selling titles at the SKU level, both Super Mario 3D Land and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary would have been included.”
“Even with Call of Duty coming to market, Battlefield 3 was the third best-selling game of the month, and is now the best-selling title under the Battlefield property.”
“The critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham City sold well in month two at retail and is now just shy of Batman: Arkham Asylum’s lifetime unit sales.”
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