NPD: GTA 4, Wii Take Top Honors in May Sales

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The NPD Group has released its U.S. sales figures for May, revealing the Xbox 360 version of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV as the month's top-selling console game with the Nintendo Wii ranking as the best-selling hardware.

The game industry as a whole amassed $1.12 billion across the month, marking a 37% leap over last year's May figures. Despite its $90 price point, Nintendo's Wii Fit sold 687,700 units and clocked in as the month's third best-selling game.

For the first time since its November 2007 debut, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare failed to place among the month's ten best-selling titles.

May hardware sales in the United States were as follows:

  1. Wii - 675,100 units
  2. Nintendo DS - 452,600 units
  3. PlayStation 3 - 208,700 units
  4. Xbox 360 - 186,600 units
  5. PSP - 182,300 units

Meanwhile, May's best-selling console games in the U.S. were:

  1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar, X360) - 871,300 units
  2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 787,400 units
  3. Wit Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 687,700 units
  4. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar, PS3) - 442,900 units
  5. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 294,600 units
  6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo, Wii) - 171,100 units
  7. Iron Man (Sega and A2M, PS2) - 130,600 units
  8. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Vicarious Visions, Wii) - 116,800 units
  9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (Chunsoft, NDS) - 107,000
  10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (Chunsoft, NDS) - 102,000 units
"The continued success of GTA IV is not translating into big hardware sales for either the PS3 or the 360 but there may yet to be a lift in June due to gift-giving for Father's Day and Graduations," noted NPD Analyst Anita Frazier.

Frazier went on to note that sales of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV have reached a combined sales total of 4.2 million units, making it the year's top-selling game so far.

"Coming in at number 12 on the top-sellers list, We Ski from Namco, which utilizes the Wii Fit balance board, was able to capitalize on Wii Fit's cross-promotions in circulars and at retail," Frazier added.

NPD also reported that year-to-date sales of Guitar Hero III and Harmonix's Rock Band have reached 2.5 million units 1.3 million units respectively, earning both games a place in the year's top selling titles.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 12, 2008 3:35 PM

    nintendo wins again

    • reply
      June 12, 2008 3:40 PM

      I still find it remarkable that they're still pushing this many units of the Wii and DS. Craziness.

      • reply
        June 12, 2008 3:40 PM

        I still really do. I'm still not kidding. Still!

      • reply
        June 12, 2008 3:41 PM

        I find it amazing how close the Wii fit and the Wii system were in overall sales. I'd like to see how many people bought a wii just for wii fit.

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