NPD: Console Sales Up 140% In July Led By Wii, DS

In the latest July sales figures from NPD, total industry sales are up 37 percent to $925.5 million, Nintendo dominates hardware sales but the 360 outsells PS3, countering earlier predictions, and EA's NCAA Football 08 for Xbox 360 leads software sales in charts that otherwise see big turnouts for Activision and the PlayStation 2. Hardware sales rose 77.4 percent over last year to $381 million, led by console sales, which were up 141 percent to $286 million, and handheld sales, which were down a percent to $94.9 million. Software sales were up 11 percent to $419 million, led by console software up 15.9 percent to $313 million, and handheld sales down 1.5 percent to $106 million. Looking at specific platform sales, the Wii led the month with 425k units sold, followed by the DS at 405k, the PlayStation 2 at 222k, the PSP at 214k, the Xbox 360 at 170k, the PlayStation 3 at 159k, and the Game Boy Advance at 87k. Activision and Electronic Arts dominated the top ten software charts with all but three slots, all three of which were taken up by Nintendo, with the PlayStation 2 continuing to show a surprising amount of support. The full breakdown is as follows: 1. NCAA Football 08 Xbox 360 (EA) - 397k 2. Guitar Hero Encore PS2 (Activision) - 339k 3. Wii Play Wii (Nintendo) - 278k 4. NCAA Football 08 PS2 (EA) - 236k 5. Mario Party 8 Wii (Nintendo) - 177k 6. NCAA Football 08 PS3 (EA) - 156k 7. Pokemon Diamond DS (Nintendo) - 144k 8. Transformers: The Game PS2 (Activision) - 143k 9. Guitar Hero 2 PS2 (Activision) - 138k 10. Guitar Hero 2 360 (Activision) - 108k Said NPD analyst Anita Frazier, "July is typically one of the slower months for the video game industry, falling between June and the related Father's Day and graduation gift occasions, and before Madden month." "Despite the summer slowdown," she continued, "the industry still realized nearly $1 billion in sales for the month, and year-to-date is up nearly 43% from the same time period in 2006. At this pace, the industry is on track to ring up $16-$18B for the year." Further analysis on the NPD charts is expected early tomorrow, and Gamasutra will link to the in-depth commentary as it arrives.