Halo 3 Pushes September Game Sales to $1.36B

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NPD's U.S. sales figures for the month of September--the month of Bungie's Halo 3 launch--have arrived. Led by the highly anticipated title, total video game sales for the month reached $1.36 billion, a 74% year-over-year increase. Home console sales showed the most marked increase across the board, with $418.6 million in revenue, nearly three times more than the same month last year before the Wii and PlayStation 3 launches.

Both software and hardware sales were dominated by either Halo 3 or the game's platform, Xbox 360. Unsurprisingly taking the top spot for software, sales of all Halo 3 versions hit 3,256,082 units, bringing Microsoft approximately $225 million in revenue. Each version actually sold more on its own that any game in September, with the standard $59.99 edition's 2,367,795 leading, followed by the $69.99 collector's edition with 511,437, and the $129.99 Spartan helmet-including Legendary edition's 376,850 units sold.

No doubt spurred by Halo 3's launch, the 360 sold the most out of any hardware platform, with its 528,000 systems nearly doubling sales from a month prior. But even the Wii's second place at 501,000 consoles sold set a record for the platform, surpassing even the Wii's launch month in the states. Sony's systems took the last two spots in home console sales, with the PlayStation 2's 215,000 and the PlayStation 3's 119,000 units.

Sales of portable consoles were up as well to $126.2 million, a 28% year-over-year increase, led by strong DS sales of 496,000. As always, the PSP trailed in second with 285,000, despite September seeing the launch of the system's slimmer redesign.

After Halo 3, software sales for the month revealed an assortment of titles for all platforms bringing in $550.5 million total for the consoles, a 64% increase. Interestingly, sales of the PS2 version of EA Tiburon's Madden NFL 08 beat sales of the Xbox 360 version of the game. The 360 version beat the PS2 iteration handily last month, revealing something of a shift in the home console climate. Check out the top ten software sales and their respective figures below:

  1. Halo 3 (Bungie, Microsoft Game Studios, X360) - 3,256,082
  2. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Nintendo, Wii) - 282,000
  3. The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo, NDS) - 224,000
  4. Madden NFL 08 (EA Tiburon, EA Sports, PS2) - 205,000
  5. Skate (EA Black Box, EA Games, X360) - 175,000
  6. Madden NFL 08 (EA Tiburon, EA Sports, X360) - 173,000
  7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Retro Studios, Nintendo, Wii) - 167,000
  8. BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia, 2K Games, X360) - 150,000
  9. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Nintendo, NDS) - 141,000
  10. Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory, SCEE, PS3) - 139,000
From The Chatty
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    October 19, 2007 10:50 AM

    So are Metroid Prime 3's sales figures ~400k or so now?

    That's pretty good, considering its launch window, but still a bit disappointing. :/

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      October 19, 2007 11:03 AM

      [deleted]

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      October 19, 2007 11:10 AM

      also consider the attach rate. 3.2 million copies of Halo 3 for ~15 million 360s? 400k copies of MP3 for 16 million Wiis? Will Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros sell nearly as well as Halo?

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        October 19, 2007 11:26 AM

        You are taking software sales in North America compared to hardware sales worldwide.

        It should be 3.2 million copies of Halo 3 for 6.8 million 360s and 400k copies of MP3 for 4.5 million Wiis. So 50% compared to 10% or so. Mario and / or Super Smash will probably sell better then MP3.

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        October 19, 2007 11:51 AM

        I'm hoping N has a large marketing push for Galaxy, I didn't hear anything about MP3's launch at all.

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        October 19, 2007 1:27 PM

        Mario Galaxy probably won't, but if the other Smash Bros. games are any indication, Brawl will sell for a very, very long time.

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      October 19, 2007 11:19 AM

      Wii owners don't buy games :( I think I spotted a flaw in flirting with the casuals. They don't buy much.

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        October 19, 2007 11:46 AM

        It could be that the target audience for MP3 (FPS enthusiasts) are too busy with Halo 3, Orange Box, etc. and will come back to it later. Plus a lot of hardcore gamers probably don't have Wiis yet

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        October 19, 2007 12:34 PM

        People buy the Wii for Wii Sports. Console has a pretty low attach rate I believe.

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      October 19, 2007 9:52 PM

      400k isn't bad for a August release. I'm sure they'll pick up a lot of sales during the holidays when gamers get back to it after playing Halo 3. Unfortunately, it had no where near the marketing that Halo 3 did.

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