Sales of Xbox 360 Skyrocket, Nintendo Wii Still on Top – NPD

by Anton Shilov
09/14/2007 | 10:57 PM

Following the price drop, sales of Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 game console increased tremendously in the   United States, the fresh data from NPD Group reveals. But while the Xbox 360 can boast with tangible improvements of sales, Nintendo Wii game console is still unattainable in terms of sell through figures.

In August 2007 Microsoft Xbox 360 game console was acquired by 276.7 thousand of gamers across the U.S., a 62.7% increase over the previous month, when sell through figures for the Xbox 360 dropped partly because of the scandal regarding malfunction game consoles as well as Sony PlayStation 3 price cut. The latter could not sustain its success on the market in August and sales of PS3 decreased by 18% to 130.6 thousand, meaning that Xbox 360 now outsells PlayStation 3 by a factor of two in the U.S. Nintendo Wii game console faced 5.1% sell through decline, however, with 403.6 thousand of machines shipped to end users, the device is well ahead of its new-generation rivals.

In general, the market of non-portable game consoles was up 3.7% sequentially in August with only Microsoft Xbox 360 enjoying sales increase. All the rest game consoles, including Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 2 and 3 became less popular on the U.S. market, according to NPD report.

Meanwhile, the market of portable game consoles shrank again by nearly 18% in August to approximately 583.4 thousand of units across the board. Nintendo sustains its leadership in the field with 383.3 thousand of Nintendo DS sold through and 69.5 thousand of Game Boy Advance bought by gamers in the USA. Sales of Sony PlayStation Portable dropped tangibly to 130.6 thousand of devices.

If July demonstrated that Sony could improve sales of the PlayStation 3 by 66% by reducing its price by $100, then August revealed that Microsoft can achieve nearly the same with $20 - $50 price-reduction. However, even now, when Microsoft Xbox 360 is only $20 more expensive compared to Nintendo Wii, the latter is still more popular on the market, which means that overwhelmingly good acceptance of Wii is not a result of its low price.