Videogame sales slid 7.6% in November
PHYSICAL: NPD says full-year sales will be less than 2008
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 12/10/2009
DEC. 10 | PHYSICAL: Videogame sales continued to decline in November, falling 7.6% from the same month last year to $2.69 billion in revenue, according to the NPD Group.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 debuted in November and was the top-selling videogame during the month.
But the results were a success nonetheless, according to the analyst, which noted the month was the second-best November in industry history. Full-year sales will fall short of 2008, however, NPD said.
In November, hardware alone slid 13.4% to $1.05 billion. Software dipped 3.1% to $1.41 billion, and accessories dropped 5.5% to $242.24 million.
Year-to-date through November, the entire videogame business is down 12% to $14.13 billion.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier believes that games are seeing year-end 2009 strength as consumers increasingly put the recession behind them.
"Based on seasonality, the industry looks like it will reach $20 billion for the year, which means December would have to be up over last year by 11%,” said Frazier. “Impossible? I don't think so. More positive economic news combined with 'frugal fatigue' could positively impact industry sales during these last weeks of the holiday season. Breaking even seems more out of reach. In order to break even to last year [which hit $21.3 billion], December sales would have to be up 36% over December 2008."
Videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 helped drive November. The title beat the daily sales rate of recent blockbuster Halo 3 by 16% in its 19 days on shelves in November. Additionally, Modern Warfare 2 now holds the record for first-month sales, moving 4.2 million units on the Xbox 360 and 1.87 million units on the PlayStation 3.
But November could have used more hit titles, noted Frazier.
"While this year's top-selling item bested last year's by 283%, it couldn't make up for softness elsewhere,” said Frazier. “The top 50 games this year sold 5% less units than did the top 50 last year."
The PS3 also enjoyed a healthy month. It realized the greatest console increase over last year’s November sales and hit its third best sales month in units yet, said NPD. Likely fueling PS3’s rise is its September $100 price chop to $299.
For the month, PS3 sold 710,400 units. The Wii was dominant at 1.26 million units sold, followed by the Xbox 360 at 819, 500 units sold.
