Super Smash Bros. Brawl Tops March Console Games Sales; Wii Outsells Xbox 360, PS3
In terms of hardware, the Wii outsold the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, followed by the Nintendo DS in close second. March hardware sales for the North American market were as follows:
- Wii - 721,000
- Nintendo DS - 698,000
- PSP - 297,000
- Xbox 360 - 262,000
- PlayStation 3 - 257,000
- PlayStation 2 - 216,000
"Nintendo systems represented 58 percent of all video game hardware sold in March in the United States," said Nintendo marketing VP Cammie Dunaway. "We expect our momentum to continue with big upcoming game launches like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit."
North America's top-selling console titles during March were:
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo, Wii) - 2,700,000
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft, X360) - 752,300
- Army of Two (Electronic Arts, X360) - 606,100
- Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 409,800
- God of War: Chains of Olympus (Ready at Dawn, SCEA, PSP) - 301,600
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Vicarious Visions, Activision, Wii) - 264,100
- MLB 2K8 (Kush Games, 2K Sports, X360) - 237,100
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, Activision, X360) - 237,000
- Army of Two (Electronic Arts, PS3) - 224,900
In all, the North American video game market amassed $1.7 billion in sales during March 2008, showing a 57% growth over March of last year. Of that figure, hardware accounted for $551.3M, with software responsible for $945.6M and accessory sales making up the remaining $220M.
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o_O wonder what DS total sales are up to now?
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Everyone who's a gamer and/or a Nintendo fanatic has already purchased a DS. The people buying DS units these days are either the occasional gamer that has broken theirs somehow or they're people who aren't gamers. They're people who like games like Puzzle Quest. They're the people who haven't played a game in years but something on the DS, like Zelda, has convinced them to pick one up. Sometimes they're not even what we would call "casual" gamers. Nintendo advertises Brain Age games in Real Simple, a women's magazine aimed at self improvement (I about fell out of my chair when my wife showed me). I bet a number of people who read that magazine bought a DS and Brain Age to improve their cognitive skills and are perhaps only vagely aware that it's a game system they've bought. The DS and to some degree the Wii have completely tapped the gamer market outside of the super-snobby-hardcore demographic and now they're basically branching out to everyone else.
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