Ever keen to shout about its success, developer Blizzard today declared that World of Warcraft's third expansion pack, Cataclysm has become "the fastest-selling PC game of all time."

According to Blizzard's internal records and reports, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm sold-through 3.3 million units within the first twenty-four hours when it launched on December 7. The previous record holder, Blizzard said, was WoW's second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, which sold 2.8 million on launch day back in November 2008. Read more »

While November is usually a month for strong hardware and software sales--thanks in part to Black Friday and the upcoming holiday season--this past November featured one of the best ever, in terms of "new physical retail sales."

According to the monthly (slimmer) NPD Group report, sales in November 2010 trampled that of November 2008--the "height" of the music/dance genre's popularity--by "roughly $30 million." Read more »

Having declared last week that Call of Duty: Black Ops was "the biggest entertainment launch ever" after raking in an estimated $360 million on launch day in North America and the UK alone, publisher Activision today announced Treyarch's Cold War-era shooter has broken another record--for "five-day worldwide sell-through in dollars"

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While we can't have fun with the numbers the same way we used to, the NPD Group has released the October NPD listing in its new, 'slimmer' form.

Jumping ahead in the hardware space was the Nintendo DS, taking over after a four-month consecutive hold the Xbox 360 had in the United States. That doesn't mean things are shaky in Microsoft's camp as NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier says that "the Xbox 360 was the only platform to realize unit sales improvement over last October." Read more »

Call of Duty: Black Ops sold-through an estimated $360 million in the first 24 hours in North America and the UK alone, Activision has announced, leading the publisher to declare the November 9 launch the new "biggest entertainment launch ever." It had previously bestowed the title upon Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

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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 »

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 »

After selling one million copies on launch day, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty went on to sell over three million copies worldwide in the first month of sale, Blizzard has revealed.

"We appreciate all the enthusiasm that players around the world have shown for StarCraft II," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. "It was important to us to deliver an overall gameplay experience that was accessible, balanced, and fun, and it's been gratifying to see how strongly the global community has already embraced the game." 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 »

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.

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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 »

Rockstar's open-world western Red Dead Redemption has "sold in" over five million copies worldwide since its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release on May 18, publisher and studio owner Take-Two Interactive revealed today in its financial results.

Exactly what the company meant by "sold-in" was not disclosed, though clarification may be on the way as it is holding a conference call to discuss the results shortly. 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 »