December NPD: highest single month for game sales ever

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It just goes to show that Americans will still have their Christmas — and games — regardless of any downturn of the economy. Sales hit a massive $5 billion in December. Gamasutra says that’s equal to the games sales of the entire year of 1997!

I don’t have to tell you what Americans bought in December, but I will anyway: over 3 million Nintendo DS units and 2.15 million Wii systems. Microsoft has a pretty merry Christmas with 1.44 million Xbox 360s sold, too. As for Sony, the PSP outsold the PS3: 1 million vs. 726,000. 

Games? You know how it went. WiiPlay made it again at the top. How the hell does this keep happening? The Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: World at War took 2nd place, and the PS3 version took 9th. The only guitar game in the top ten was Guitar Hero: World Tour, for the Wii.

As far as software goes for 2008, it was almost all Nintendo titles: Wii Play, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: City Folk, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  The top ten was filled out by manly games like GTA IV (both consoles), Call of Duty: World at War, and Gears of War 2. The top ten was totally devoid of music/guitar games. Surprised?

Predictions for January: Um… I don’t know. Skate 2 is big? [shrugs]


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