Exclusive: LittleBigPlanet November Sales Revealed

Sony placed a considerable publicity campaign behind LittleBigPlanet, and the Media Molecule-developed PlayStation 3 exclusive generated lots of buzz. It didn't make November's top 10 titles, though -- so how did it sell? Well, LBP moved 141,000 units in the United States during November 2008, according to figures provided to Gamasutra by the NPD Group. The title had debuted eighth in the October console software sales charts with 215,000 units sold. November's weaker showing dropped the title out of the top 20 across all consoles. Across all PlayStation 3 software in November, though, LittleBigPlanet was ranked fourth behind Activision's Call of Duty: World at War, Sony's own Resistance 2, and Midway's brawler, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Since its public unveiling at the 2007 Game Developer's Conference, Sony's heavily promoted LittleBigPlanet for its casual-friendly gameplay and innovative user-driven community features. Represented in-game by heavily-customizable Sackboys, consumers may play cooperatively or alone through levels created by the developer, Media Molecule, or other levels created and shared by other LBP owners around the world. Sony continues to leverage LittleBigPlanet's public image to promote its own properties and those of third parties. Sony's PlayStation Store currently offers several game-themed Sackboy costumes, including some based on Capcom's popular Street Fighter franchise. While Sony has said that it expects LittleBigPlanet to do well in the market over the long term, it may still be concerned to observe sales of just over 350,000 units in the United States during two of the most popular shopping months of the year. As a comparison point, the top 10 game SKUs for November alone in the U.S. all sold 297,000 copies or more.