The lights are on
The NPD Group has released its report on the video game industry for the month of March 2014. The sector saw growth during the four week period in hardware and accessories, but software dipped year over year.
Notably, NPD estimates total consumer spending at $1.66 billion, representing a three-percent increase. Hardware sales are up 78 percent year-over-year. Accessories are up four percent with controllers for PS4 and Xbox One leading sales. Software is down 27 percent, though.
The NPD top 10 sellers for the month can be found below. Note that this does include collectors' editions, game of the year versions, and bundles, but not games that are packed in with hardware. That means that any Titanfall copies sold in the limited edition Xbox One package are not included. Despite that, PlayStation 4 outsold Xbox One for the third month in a row.
Together, both new consoles are trending ahead of their last-generation counterparts by double at this point in the life cycle. We know that Sony has sold seven million PlayStation 4 units to consumers as of early April. Microsoft announced today that it has sold-in five million Xbox Ones to retailers. PS4 is currently in 49 territories versus Microsoft's 13.
Titanfall won the month, and is now the second highest selling Xbox One game.
Missing from this list are Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, which sold 2.7 million units in its first week. It was the top selling PC game. Yoshi's New Island (3DS) was the 10th best selling SKU, but did not place at the aggregated title level.
Please note that the NPD report only measures retail sales traffic in the United States. NPD tells us that this is actual retail data and not derived from a survey of retail establishments.
Our TakeWithout digital factored in, it's hard to gauge what an all-encompassing list would look like. I expect we are missing a large number of Titanfall and Infamous sales, especially. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes would also likely be further up the list. NPD is an imperfect measurement, but it is currently the only third-party assessment available in a notoriously data-protective industry.
Yeah this NDP stuff is pretty lame if there still isn't a way to track all means of distribution.
Hmmm. I thought Titanfall would have been a key player in XBONE sales from all the hype it got. Seems they'll have to try better than that if they want to keep up.
If there weren't so many good games at the top of this list I would be severely butthurt by the state of game purchases.
It shouldn't be a shock to anyone that Hardware trended way up while software fell. I'm also not surprised in the least that Titanfall is best selling game of March.
And I'm assuming Ghosts managed the 4th spot only because it's playable on platforms.
I happened to notice that Sony sold 7 million to consumers and Microsoft sold 5 million to retailers, so does that mean there's a chance that 2 million Xbox One could just be sitting on store shelves?
I nailed the top three! Now, to beat Al Gore!
So a game bundled with system out sold a game sold only separately.
BTW Knack has reached > 1 million sold since it got bundled with the Japan PS4s.
I love how the numbers and facts don't lie yet Microsoft fanboys are still defending the console. You go kids!!!