Despite a record sales month of 1.9 million Xbox 360s in the US, it was the Wii and Nintendo DS which came out on top in the final month of 2010.
According to Nintendo – citing NPD figures – the Nintendo DS sold more than 2.5 million units during the five week tracking period which began November 28, 2010. The Wii wasn’t far behind with over 2.3 million units sold.
Microsoft said it would have sold more units had the platform not been constrained by supply.
“We would have sold more had we not run out of supply in late December,” David Dennis, group product manager with Xbox, said in an interview. “We air-freighted stuff in December, but you can only sell as many as you can make.”
Dennis also stated that retailers will see “pockets of supply constraints” through early February.
Despite these problems, Microsoft claims its Xbox 360 was the only console to show year-over-year growth at 42 per cent, making it the fastest growing console in 2010.
Sales of the PS3 were down from 1.36 million in December 2009 to only 1.21 million in December 2010, according to the LA Times.
Software sales were once again led by Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, shifting somewhere in the region of 3.6 million copies across its five platforms.
Just Dance 2 came in at No.2, WoW: Cataclysm was at No.3, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood at No.4 and Donkey Kong Country: Returns was new at No.5.
Black Ops was also the best-selling game in the calendar year, moving 12 million copies – twice the figure achieved by Madden NFL 11 at No.2. It’s also interesting to see the likes of Modern Warfare 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus all charting inside the Top 10 for 2010, despite launching in 2009.
Via Gamasutra | Bloomberg
