Although the NPD Group gave somewhat of an explanation for its decision to redact its monthly sales data for public consumption, analyst Anita Frazier has gone into greater detail regarding the changes, on the group's official blog.

Acknowledging that its coverage of only "new physical sales of hardware, software and accessories" did not form an accurate representation of the industry's consumer spending, the NPD decided to change its strategy. As a result, NPD's "old" reporting practices, according to Frazier, had caused some "unnecessary angst" for some industry followers [via Gamasutra]. Read more »

The NPD Group will be releasing its Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend report shortly, which details the $3.7 billion spent on retail games in the US in the first half of 2010.

The report also shows that between $2.6 and $2.9 billion was spent on "used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile game apps." Read more »

Although they will no longer provide any of those pesky "numbers" we all like so much, the NPD Group has released its report for the month of September. As Microsoft announced earlier, Halo: Reach topped the charts, selling 3.3 million units in its first month of sale.

Capcom's Dead Rising 2 took the third spot across three platforms, despite launching on September 28 in North America. EA Sports saw three of its titles land in September's top ten, with Madden NFL 11, NHL 11, and FIFA Soccer 11 invading the month's top five sellers. New exclusive titles Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP and Nintendo Wii's Metroid: Other M also had strong debuts. Note: The NPD Group no longer lists software as individual platforms. Sales for all platforms will now be combined when listed in the "Top Ten" and no figures will be released to the public from the NPD Group. Read more »

With the NPD Group recently deciding to ditch public reporting of monthly hardware and software unit sales figures, we're expecting way more monthly messages from those representing the "Big Three." Oh, look, Microsoft's up first and, according to numbers they've received from the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 was the top selling console in September.

"Xbox 360 enters the holiday season with four consecutive months as the #1 console in the U.S.," a representative for Microsoft noted in an email. "With 484,000 units sold during the month, up 37% from last September, a stark comparison to the other console platforms." Read more »

Last month, the Xbox 360 sold more hardware than any other system for the first time since 2007. Microsoft managed to pull it off again posting a second straight month of topping the hardware sales, though overall sales were down month to month. The PlayStation 3 was the only console to show gains versus the prior month, but has still not returned to its June sales of 304.8K units. The Wii posted its lowest hardware sales since launch.

U.S. Hardware Sales - reporting August 1 to August 28, 2010 Read more »

The NPD Group have released sales date for the month of July, revealing the Xbox 360 has taken over the top spot versus all video game platforms. The last time the Xbox 360 led all platforms was in September 2007, following the release of Halo 3.

Although video game retail sales were slightly lower over July 2009, one major standout was StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, which sold 721K units during the month. The release was a major contributing factor to the 103% growth the PC category saw versus last year. (The game does not appear on the NPD list, as NPD only tracks console sales.) Read more »

[Update - 10:20] We've removed a misunderstanding from our reading of the report.

Digital distribution accounted for 48% of PC games sold in the USA last year, according to a new report from market research firm The NPD Group.

21.3 million "PC Game full-game digital downloads" were purchased in the USA in 2009 while 23.5 million physical units were bought at retail during the year, according to NPD's figures. DD raked in 48% of unit sales and 36% of dollar sales. Read more »

NPD group has revealed the sales data for June 2010 and Red Dead Redemption continues to own the top of the charts. Claiming first on the Xbox 360 for the second month in a row and third on the PS3 (down from second place in May), Rockstar's title continues to dominate critical and commercial reception. Sadly, these figures come a day following word that the San Diego team behind the rebirth of the virtual wild west saw job cuts. Mario's second galaxy hopping adventure pushes into second place, while Toy Story 3 (NDS) and Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 debut and Remedy's Alan Wake (unfortunately) falls from the top ten. On the hardware side, the Xbox 360 (thanks to its new slim model) saw the largest gain of 257.1K units to take second place away from Nintendo's home console.

Top Ten U.S. Console Games - Reporting May 30 to July 3, 2010 Read more »

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.

Read more »

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg officially threw a gauntlet at Sony's feet with a tweet asserting that Halo 3 has officially outsold six PlayStation 3 excluside titles combined.

Just in from research team (NPD): Halo 3 has outsold Resistance 1 + 2, Uncharted 1+2, Killzone 2 and God of War III COMBINED....wow Read more »

The NPD Group has released some new market research survey results related to American gaming habits, including so-called "Extreme Gamers," a subset that encapsulates the most active four percent of gamers in the United States.

Of the nearly 19,000 gamers questioned--some as young as 2 years old--the survey found that those classified as "Extreme Gamers" played an average of just over two full days per week, or 48.5 hours. It's a fairly dramatic number, considering that (as a whole) U.S. gamers spend an average of thirteen hours per week playing games. Read more »

With April 2010 behind us and May 2010 in full swing, market research firm The NPD Group has issued its monthly breakdown of the past month's U.S. console sales.

This month marks a departure from most, as the company only listed the units sold for half of the top ten and no longer offers PlayStation 2 hardware sales numbers. Read more »

SCE Santa Monica's brutal PlayStation 3-exclusive sequel God of War III took top honors as the best-selling console game in the United States during March 2010, research firm NPD Group revealed today in its monthly update on hardware and software sales.

"For the first time since its launch in the US, the PS3 has four titles in the Top 10, and was also the leader in console software sales," noted NPD's Anita Frazier. Meanwhile, only two Xbox 360 titles--Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2--made the chart: Read more »

With February 2010 now behind us, research firm NPD Group has released its regular breakdown of the past month's U.S. console hardware and software sales.

A few interesting tidbits: The Xbox 360 outsold the Wii for the first time since September 2007, which is when Halo 3 was released. The PlayStation 3 edition of BioShock 2 is nowhere to be found despite the Xbox 360 version topping the chart. The bonus-packed PlayStation 3 edition of Dante's Inferno outsold the regular Xbox 360 iteration. Read more »

Market research firm The NPD Group has revealed the highlights of its recent "Online Gaming 2010" research report, providing a glimpse of the overall online landscape.

Alongside a breakdown of per platform online gaming popularity, the company noted that "an average of 20 percent of all games purchased by online gamers were digitally downloaded - up from 19 percent in the 2009 study and 18 percent in the 2008 study." Read more »