NPD: 360 enjoys best ever month in US

By Fred Dutton Published 14 January, 2011

Plus: Just Dance 2 outsells Cataclysm.

The Xbox 360 enjoyed its best ever US sales month in December, according to sales data released by The NPD Group.

Although the DS was the highest selling system of the month, the 360 recorded its best ever figures, shifting 1.9 million units, and was the only console to see a year-on-year sales increase. Impressive figures, considering it ran out of stock before the end of the month.

NPD didn't release information on how the other platforms fared but confirmed that across the board, hardware sales were down six per cent on 2009.

Call of Duty: Black Ops took the Christmas software honours, with Just Dance 2 coming in second behind the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion - although Blizzard's title will no doubt have shifted many more units through downloads.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Donkey Kong Country Returns held up well at four and five, while Wii exclusive Epic Mickey made a strong start at six.

Here's how the full top 10 panned out:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
  2. Just Dance 2
  3. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
  4. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
  5. Donkey Kong Country Returns
  6. Epic Mickey
  7. Madden NFL 11
  8. Michael Jackson: The Experience
  9. NBA 2K11
  10. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

PlayStation 3 exclusive Gran Turismo 5 was nowhere to be seen after debuting at number eight last month.

If the chart was based on individual platform sales, rather than cross-platform totals, Just Dance 2 came out on top, while Kinect Sports, UDraw Studio and Dance Central would all have made the top 10.

NPD also revealed the US top 10 for the entire year, with Black Ops coming out on top, just as it did in the UK. Here's how the chasing pack measured up:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
  2. Madden NFL 11
  3. Halo Reach
  4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
  5. Red Dead Redemption
  6. Wii Fit Plus
  7. Just Dance 2
  8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
  9. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
  10. NBA 2K11
Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GamesConnoisseur #1 1 year ago

    And in another article re the possibility of a damage control from MS re stock ran out of X360 before expected NPD figures, as thinking was to prepare us for poor performance of X360, now we know that theory is well blown out of water spectaularly!

    Still we haven't got precise figures from other platforms but 6 percent reduction overall? However all platforms would be pleased with their Xmas sales, I expect and we ll see all sort of PR from everyone re this!

  • davisorle #2 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:13:13 09-05-2012

  • Jolly_Armadillo #3 1 year ago

    Are these US figures?

    I'd be more interested in the European figures / uk. These would be more relevant to me :)

  • Penguinzoot #4 1 year ago

    NPD is North America only.

  • sfp_noodle #5 1 year ago

    Wow excellent figures! Nintendo need to do a price drop and stop taking the piss with their "bundles." Drop it to £100 for a stand-alone console and I'll buy one for every room. Even the bathroom.

    Regarding the PS3, well, in the UK it needs to drop between £180-200 for the 320gb model and around £150 for the 160gb model. Software-wise they've well served this year but if the hardware isn't shifting they can't offer it to anyone but existing customers.

    Also, I think Sony have reached the point in their console life-cycle where they offer a true slimline model. We all know that the current model was Sony's idea of a re-launch when the console was struggling globally. Even Sony refused to call it a slim model, referring to it simply as the "new PS3." Although in all honesty, I think most would just be happy with a price drop, but a re-design always helps as past figures have shown.

  • Kassim #6 1 year ago

    the 360 had its best ever month and yet it still sold half a million less than the wii.
    The wii just keeps on selling. Ninty must be loving it.
    Personally I think the ps3 needs a price drop for it to really have a big impact this year

    As for gt5, it seem that it sold ok in the US but its biggest market is definately europe. I bet it sold way more here.
    Glad to see ACB on that list it deserves some recognition. I really like the multiplayer.
    Edited by Kassim at 14/01/11 @ 01:45

  • lockload #7 1 year ago

    @Kassim

    When the competition is down 40% and 11% and you are up by 40% i think microsoft will be very happy with that

  • inutaihanyou #8 1 year ago

    I'm glad 360 is doing so well, i was concerned that my preferred console would be left in the dust this year due to PS3's frankly put, excellent line up of exclusives.

    Since PS3 unit sales are quite good globally, i tip my hat to Microsoft and Sony, competition is good.

    Wii of course will always top the lists, its the king of casual :p

  • KungFuSpoon #9 1 year ago

    I think every single person on the planet underestimated the wow power kinect has. I wouldn't attribute all sales to kinect but since the 360 is the only console showing positive growth for December it is a fairly logical conclusion that kinect did help shift a lot of new machines. Well played MS, here's hoping this boost in sales will see serious kinect support this year so it doesn't become a dead platform.

    That side 2011 may also be the year I finally invest in a PS3, there's finally enough exclusives to justify me dropping £200+ on gaming hardware when lets be honest there wasn't a whole lot between the PS3 and the 360 in 2010 with a fairly even set of exclusives on either side.
    Edited by KungFuSpoon at 14/01/11 @ 06:41

  • MDL199 #10 1 year ago

    MS are doing good business in their home country but America is not the world, thankfully.

    Outside of the States they're in 3rd place which is not entirely surprising when the 360 console is such an American focused console. Also the rest of the world pays a whole lot more for Live and Microsoft Points which seems quite unfair.

  • ardamillo #11 1 year ago

    This reminds me of the time I made a tray of mini pizzas for a party, but I only used half the dough because I wasn't sure if people would like them. Then everyone snarfed them in five minutes so I had to hurry back and make another batch. I was so proud.

  • Vice.Destroyer #12 1 year ago

    I don't quite understand how the Xbox is such an american-focussed console? Are you talking about the fact that they get ESPN and we in Europe don't? I think that is a bit unfair. They have struck some pretty good deals for the different regions, in regards to content. We may not get Netflix, but we get Zune. And Sky. And France has its own equivalent.

    You can call the 360 many negative things. But american-centric? I think that they have done as much as can be expected to embrace each different region. That even extends to the PR people. America has Major Nelson. Who is alright. And we get those two guys from Sent U a message and a few other Xbox people.

    /obviously a 360 fanboy

  • Xardan #13 1 year ago

    America is the biggest market and all consoles focus most on it. So its sort of understandable that people might think the xbox is an american focused product what with all the articles about US sales and US announcements etc.

    It has got more going for it in america though than in europe and i think microsoft should start throwing europe some features or two to substitute netflix and hulu which we cant get due to copyright laws. Otherwise it will start to be seen as an american driven product.

  • Dizzy #14 1 year ago

    "Outside of the States they're in 3rd place which is not entirely surprising when the 360 console is such an American focused console"

    Not at all... the ww gap between 360 and PS3 has grown by about a million the last 3 months. Sony might be doing better in Europe, but they need a lot more sales to catch up. They almost certainly will not catch up in 2011.

  • SlackMaster #15 1 year ago

    Now the dust has settled after xmas it'd be interesting to see how th Kinect does... tbh though I've not heard any announcements for new games for it or integration with mainstream titles.

  • billy-beauts #16 1 year ago

    MS really did a great job with marketing Kinect, I think a lot of those sales wil have been to Wii owning families who were looking for the next big thing in home entertainment. Looks like Sony miss out again. Are they ever going to get it right?

  • Der_tolle_Emil #17 1 year ago

    I am a bit surprised that Kinect took off the way it did. New technology is always a good thing and with enough sales developers will definitely provide enough software to support it. I'm interested to see what can be done with Kinect besides the obvious things the launch games did.

    Also: I thought the NPD decided not to release any numbers anymore?

  • Dizzy #18 1 year ago

    >Also: I thought the NPD decided not to release any numbers anymore?

    They said they were not going to release figures anymore for everything, but usually numbers are distilled by NeoGaf or platform holders just come forwards with their numbers.

  • MORZTAN #19 1 year ago

    I am overly impressed with the Wii!!

    It's amazing that it keeps selling! Must be billions for R&D for the next Nintendo home console... Or a diamond cat for Yamauchi. Who knows?

  • NotSoSlim #20 1 year ago

    No shock with GT5 not being there given trends in US especially with racers. Sony will be happy with the global 5m sales.

    Price drop next year I think as they have the line up.

    360 sakes were great but as with any growth can it be sustained? Hardware is there but are the games?

    Wii is just the Wii so no more needs to be said

  • SteveHolt #21 1 year ago

    -38% for wii, +42% for x360 => Wii2 coming soon. E3 2011 announcement, fall 2012 release. I just read it in my coffee this morning, so it's still a bit blurry, though.

  • elvenearth #22 1 year ago

    Penguinzoot: NPD is North America only.

    Though of course the sales listed here are just for the US. Canada and Mexico are are not included in the figures listed by the article.

  • spekkeh #23 1 year ago

    Well a lot of people expected the Wii 2 to be announced during CES, but that hasn't turned out to be true. Even now they're still top dog by quite a stretch, so there doesn't really seem to be a point to it. Wouldn't be surprised if they'd wait with the announcement till well after Skyward Sword. No reason to diminish your sales of that, and Apple's shown that you can announce your new product a month beforehand, and hype would still be through the roof.
    Edited by spekkeh at 14/01/11 @ 10:28

  • cairbre1977 #24 1 year ago

    Is it really true that downloads from steam and others are not included? Surely that vastly under rates the sale of pc software

  • arcam #25 1 year ago

    Yep, no XBL or PSN downloads either.

    DLC and other downloads are a massive part of gaming now (didn't EA say recently half their revenue comes from digital downloads?) so these figures are a long way from the complete story.

  • coolbritannia #26 1 year ago

    Good work boys. *pats 360