May NPD: Red Dead Redeems Lagging Month, Mario Nabs Third

NPD group has revealed the sales data for May 2010 and, unsurprisingly, Red Dead: Redemption leads the sales posse. Selling a combined 1.5 million units across the Xbox 360 and PS3, each version of Rockstar's open-world western overtook Mario's latest Galaxy adventure, pushing the portly plumber to third.

Red Dead: Redemption and Super Mario Galaxy 2

In May, 8 of the top 10 SKU's were new releases.

Top Ten U.S. Console Games - Reporting May 2 to May 29, 2010
1. Red Dead: Redemption (Xbox 360) - 945.9K

2. Red Dead: Redemption (PS3) - 567.1K

3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - 563.9K

4. UFC 2010: Undisputed (Xbox 360) - 221.1K

5. UFC 2010: Undisputed (PS3) - 192.3K

6. Wii Fit Plus w/ Balance Board (Wii)

7. New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii)

8. Alan Wake* (Xbox 360)

9. Pokemon Soul Silver (NDS)

10. Skate 3 (Xbox 360)

(*includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

U.S. Hardware Sales - Reporting May 2 to May 29, 2010
1. DS: 383.7K (down 57.1K)

2. Wii: 334.8K (up 57.6K)

3. Xbox 360: 194.6K (up 9.2K)

4. PS3: 154.5K (down 26.3K)

5. PSP: 59.4K (down 6.1K)

Although the games industry continues to slump -- trailing last year's year-to-date by 6% -- NPD group analyst Anita Frazier noted that this was the third best-selling May on record (behind 2008 and 2009). Handhelds, more specifically the Nintendo DS, saw the biggest hardware decline (down 20%); however, Nintendo's popular portable continues to lead sales.

"Console hardware unit sales are, in fact, flat to last year," Frazier added. "Declines in sales result from a lower average selling price this year compared to last." According to Frazier, the PS3 enjoyed the greatest "percentage growth, with platform sales across hardware, software, and accessories up 32% for the month, and 28% year-to-date." The Xbox 360 across hardware, software and accessories contributed to "the greatest share of revenue to industry sales for the month, and year-to-date."Fraizer notes that both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 saw unit hardware sale increases in May; however, in April 2010 the PlayStation 3 sold 180K units versus 155K in May. Shacknews has contacted the NPD group to clarify the statements. (Year-over-Year both the Xbox 360 and PS3 have seen unit hardware sales increases.)