June 2005 U.S. Sales See GTA, Pokemon On Top

North American video game sales statistics for June 2005 have now been made available to analysts, and according to reports, the NPD Group-sourced statistics show that the now-withdrawn Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox gets a moment in the sun atop the all-format software charts, with over 385,000 units sold. After that on June's charts, Pokémon Emerald for Game Boy Advance continues its strong showing with 265,000 copies sold in the month, and the PlayStation 2 version of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith also sustains with 229,000 copies (and just over 100,000 on Xbox), both following up strong May sales. Fourth place is Medal of Honor: European Assault for PlayStation 2 at 161,000 copies (with the Xbox SKU also selling almost 100,000 copies), and Xbox swan song Conker: Live and Reloaded follows quickly on with around 150,000 units sold for the month. The lone next-gen handheld title in the top 20 is Nintendo's Kirby: Canvas Curse on the DS, showing just under 80,000 copies sold at North American stores. In comparison, the Game Boy Advance has four entries: the aforementioned Pokémon, Madagascar with 121,000 copies, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones with 96,000, and Star Wars Episode III with 81,000. Total dollar sales for the entire market during June reached $388 million, an improvement of 2% over June 2004's $380 million. In terms of volume, 12 games sold over 100,000 copies, which fell short of Morgan Wedbush's estimate of a $400 million total and 13 100,000+ sellers, but did not particularly disappoint, especially for the sometimes becalmed summer months.