NPD, Chart-Track and Enterbrain combine forces for global sales report

[obonicus]

Sort of an NPD post, sort of a Japan sales post, sort of a Reliable Europe numbers (well, UK) post:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/21/npd-chart-track-and-enterbrain-combine-forces-for-global-sales/

The interesting bit:

Year-to-Date* Top 5 Video Game Titles

Top Global Markets Report

Ranked By Units** 
Rank 	Title 	                  Total         US          UK          Japan
1 	GRAND THEFT AUTO IV       6,293,000 	4,711,000   1,582,000          --
2 	SUPER SMASH BROS: BRAWL   5,433,000 	3,539,000     213,000   1,681,000
3 	MARIO KART WII            4,697,000 	2,409,000     687,000   1,601,000
4 	WII FIT                   3,604,000 	1,433,000     624,000   1,547,000
5 	GUITAR HERO III: LoR      3,475,000 	3,037,000     412,000      26,000

Not entirely surprising. Though I am surprised at how well GTA sold in the UK, compared to everything else.

 

[Tap In]

I see UK and JP but not all of Europe or Asia, so "Global" is still a bit of a stretch

 

[eastmen]

Its certianly better than what we had previously. Why the hate for smash bros in europe ?

 

[Zaphod]

Why the hate for smash bros in europe ?

You mean "Why the hate for smash bros in the UK?", but that isn't accurate either. It wasn't released there until June 27.

 

[eastmen]

You mean "Why the hate for smash bros in the UK?", but that isn't accurate either. It wasn't released there until June 27.

Ah thanks i did not know that

 

[obonicus]

You mean "Why the hate for smash bros in the UK?", but that isn't accurate either. It wasn't released there until June 27.

Wasn't MK:Wii released before the US, though? They're just not as interested in kart-racing? (Would be interesting if we knew the numbers for racing games on other, more expensive consoles, including GT5.)

 

[Zaphod]

Wasn't MK:Wii released before the US, though? They're just not as interested in kart-racing?

It has a higher sales to population ratio than in the US. Besides, we'd need to know the relative installed base of the Wii in the UK to make any kind of half-relevant comparison.

 

[jandlecack]

Wasn't MK:Wii released before the US, though?

Yes, Mario Kart Wii was released before the US in Europe.

(Would be interesting if we knew the numbers for racing games on other, more expensive consoles, including GT5.)

That game had 1 million confirmed pre-orders in Europe I think, so you can go from there.

 

[obonicus]

It has a higher sales to population ratio than in the US.

True, but GTA4 has a much higher sales to population, too. Top 10 lists for the UK usually have Wii games at top. According to Chart-Track, first week Mario Kart Wii was featured was 12/04, and GTA4 first appeared 03/05. GTA then stayed at top place through all of May. It continued to outperform MK:Wii (which never dipped below #15, I think) until 28/06. From then on, it mostly outperformed GTA4, and usually ranked in top 10.

So it had 3 months on GTA4, and placed higher for the most part (Though I don't think MK:Wii ever placed at #1). Not saying it means anything, I just think it's surprising.

Besides, we'd need to know the relative installed base of the Wii in the UK to make any kind of half-relevant comparison.

True, but considering how much of top-10 software is for the Wii, I don't think it'd be a stretch to guess that the Wii has some advantage there.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised that racing games sell (relatively) better in europe. Hasn't that been true of almost all racing games?

 

[obonicus]

I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised that racing games sell (relatively) better in europe. Hasn't that been true of almost all racing games?

Who's surprised about that? What I'm surprised at is how large the difference between GTA4 and MK:Wii is, when even in the US that's not true. Wii games constantly rank at the top of the charts, including MK:Wii.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Who's surprised about that? What I'm surprised at is how large the difference between GTA4 and MK:Wii is, when even in the US that's not true. Wii games constantly rank at the top of the charts, including MK:Wii.

You can't interpret being on the chart as significant sales. For the UK we get a big list of top sellers with no numbers, but if sales trends are anything like the US being in 20th place could mean 2% of the sales of the #1 title. GTA was most assuredly on top of the UK charts for a while.

Oh and I was referring to GTA the racing game, so I don't think relatively better sales for it in Europe is at all surprising.

<edit> and games sell much less in non release weeks, so being in first doesn't mean it sold a lot it just means it sold better than whatever else came out. And GTA was at the top of the UK chart for 6 weeks, in fact it was #1 and #2 for 5 weeks.

 

[JPT]

Some numbers for Norway was released today.

The excel sheet is here http://www.spillforeningen.no/nyheter/NSM tall 2000-2008 1ste halvår.xls

It shows revenue per month in norwegian crowns and total hw sales, altough since MS does not release HW sales numbers, Xbox/Xbox 360 is missing.

But 590K LTD for PS2 in a country with less than 5M people and 76K PS3 I think is quite okay. If you look at the revenue numbers per month, you see that PS3 generate quite a nice chunk of cash for Sony.

1 USD ~ 5.4 NKR
1 Euro ~ 8 NKR