Nintendo Stomps the Competition with November Sales

Last month was huge for video game sales, and the data from NPD Group proves it. November is always a good month for sales of any kind, and the reason is obvious. Christmas and other common religious celebrations occur in December, and people attempt to get their shopping done in good time (as if that ever happens!). Of course, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales help, so it goes without saying that it’s a good time to be a retailer.

For the most part though, where video games were concerned, it was Nintendo who was dominating. Last month, the company sold 2.04 million Wii consoles, which is 208% of what the company sold during the same month last year. That’s truly staggering, especially when you consider the console has been out since November 2006! Either people are breaking a lot of these things, or there’s really that many more hopping on the bandwagon.

If you think that’s where Nintendo’s streak ends, think again. During the same month, they sold 1.57 million copies of their Nintendo DS handheld, and surely, countless games. For two consoles that don’t offer near as much power as their competitors, it goes to show that it’s the games that sell these things, not the graphics. Although their numbers pale in comparison to Nintendo’s, both Microsoft and Sony had good months too, with 836,000 Xbox 360’s sold, as well as 378,000 PlayStation 3’s.

“The video games industry continues to set a blistering sales pace, overall, with total month revenues 10% higher than last November, even with 7 less days of post-Thanksgiving shopping this year [over last],” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “With $16B realized for the year so far through November, the industry is still on pace to achieve total year revenues of $22B in the U.S.”