January NPD - Mariowned

2008 may be over, but the console buying public is still hungry, so now it's time for the first sales data of the year, courtesy of NPD Group. Once again, Nintendo dominates, with over a million hardware units sold. Obviously the numbers are far lower than last month, but still double what they were this time last year. Analysts are calling this good, but lets look at it another way for a moment:

In December 2007 Nintendo sold 1,350,000 Wiis. Then in January 2008 they sold 274,000 - a drop off of 1,076,000. December 2008 saw a record breaking 2,150,000 Wiis sold, which went down to 679,200 in January 2009 - a drop off of 1,470,800. So by this logic Nintendo are actually doing worse than this time last year. Of course, I realize that more units sold is always a good thing, but I just wanted to demonstrate that statistics can be used for all purposes, and shouldn't always be relied on.

The rest of the numbers are fairly typical. The 360 is in a very respectable third place, followed by the PS3, PSP, and PS2. Sony fanboys may argue that the combined total for all three systems would put Sony above Microsoft, but even this number is lower than the number of DSs sold, so it's not that impressive.
Here are January's figures:

• Wii - 679,200
• Nintendo DS - 510,800
• Xbox 360 - 309,000
• PlayStation 3 - 203,200
• PSP - 172,300
• PlayStation 2 - 101,200

As far as software sales go, it's all Wii, DS and 360; sorry Sony. Wii Fit keeps the top spot, followed by Wii Play and Mario Kart. When you consider that New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart for the DS are also on the chart, it just proves my point that most hardcore gamers bought everything they wanted when it was first released, leaving the charts to be filled by parents who just got a new console for their kids. The fact that the Wii has only a handful of good games means that these are the ones that constantly chart. After all, what else are people going to buy for it?

All the other spaces are filled with Xbox 360 games. Call of Duty: World at War and Left 4 Dead tie for 4th place, and these are joined by newcomers Skate 2 and Lord of the Rings: Conquest.
Here are the numbers:

01. Wii Fit (Wii) - 777,000
02. Wii Play (Wii) - 415,000
03. Mario Kart (Wii) - 292,000
04. Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) - 243,000
05. Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) - 243,000
06. Skate 2 (Xbox 360) - 199,000
07. Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii) - 155,000
08. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 135,000
09. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 132,000
10. Lord of the Rings: Conquest (Xbox 360) - 113,000

With no big releases this month, I imagine that February's charts will look pretty much the same, but we'll have to wait another four weeks to find out for sure.