NPD: Force Unleashed, Wii Fit Lead September Sales, 360 Sales Spike After Price Cut

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed took top honors for sales in the month of September 2008, according to new numbers released by market research firm The NPD Group. Also of note was the near doubling of Xbox 360 sales after the system's price cut took effect in early September.

The top ten U.S. console games from September, according to NPD, were:

  1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts, Xbox 360) - 610,000
  2. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 518,000
  3. Rock Band 2 (Harmonix, Xbox 360) - 363,000
  4. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 353,000
  5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts, PlayStation 3) - 325,000
  6. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Pandemic, Xbox 360) - 297,000
  7. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 243,000
  8. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon, Xbox 360) - 224,000
  9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Krome, Wii) - 223,000
  10. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon, PlayStation 2) - 158,000

Meanwhile, September hardware sales in the United States were as follows:

  1. Wii - 687,000 units
  2. Nintendo DS - 536,800 units
  3. Xbox 360 - 347,200 units
  4. PSP - 238,100 units
  5. PlayStation 3 - 232,400 units
  6. PlayStation 2 - 173,500 units
The games industry overall sold $1.27 billion worth of games, hardware and accessories in September 2008, marking a 7% decline from September 2007. Last September, however, saw the launch of Bungie's Halo 3, which according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier generated a full 35% of software sales for all of 2007.

"Overall, the health of the video games industry remains quite strong despite the rocky economic conditions," Frazier added, echoing comments from other industry analysts.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 16, 2008 3:50 PM

    I think this proves there's a different type of mainstream gamers out there, those on the 360 or PS3 that are mainstream but more 15-35 year old gamer. The Force Unleashed is basically a big frustrating pile of crap yet the #1 seller.

    • reply
      October 16, 2008 3:54 PM

      It's only #1 because it's relatively new and it's Star Wars IP. It won't be up there for much longer after the holiday heavyweights hit the shelves.

      • reply
        October 16, 2008 3:58 PM

        Eh, it still sold almost twice as much as the next game. And after that it's Rock Band 2 and then Madden.

    • reply
      October 16, 2008 5:19 PM

      Why is it frustrating?

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