LA Noire, Brink top May US charts

By Fred Dutton Published 13 June, 2011

NPD: "Sales of the 3DS were light."

LA Noire was the biggest selling game in the US during the month of May, according to the latest NPD data.

Splash Damage's multiplayer FPS Brink debuted in second, followed by another new entry, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean.

Portal 2, which debuted in second place last month, fell to four, while April's number one, Mortal Kombat, rounded out the top five.

Here's the full top 10 rundown:

  1. L.A. Noire (360, PS3) Take 2 Interactive
  2. Brink (360, PS3, PC) Bethesda Softworks
  3. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) Disney Interactive Studios
  4. Portal 2 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
  5. Mortal Kombat 2011 (PS3, 360) Warner Bros. Interactive
  6. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC) Activision Blizzard
  7. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3) Majesco
  8. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, PC) Take 2 Interactive
  9. Just Dance 2 (Wii) Ubisoft
  10. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii, NDS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) Lucasarts

Software sales were down across all platforms apart from Xbox 360, which saw a tiny one per cent bump compared to this time last year.

"This month's story really is about a light new release schedule as compared to last year. There were 42 new SKU's introduced in May as compared to 58 last May, and 72 in 2009. This is reflected in the share of dollars contributed by May releases, which was 28 per cent in 2011as compared to 41 per cent last year," noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

On the hardware side, Xbox 360 came out on top shifting 270,000 units - a 39 per cent year-on-year jump. As usual, NPD hasn't released more detailed information on where the rest of the field came in but we'll update as and when the numbers leak out.

However, it did confirm another disappointing month for the 3DS.

"Sales of the 3DS were light, but with next Sunday's release of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, we will begin to see a slate of strong content come to market for the 3DS, which should help to significantly boost sales of hardware during the remainder of 2011," explained Frazier.

"Combined sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 (HD hardware) are up 28 per cent for the month and 21 per cent year to date. Although the declines in console hardware sales in 2011 are attributable to the Wii, the platform remains the best-selling of this generation at nearly 36 million installed in the US."

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 (21) Latest comment 11 months ago

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

  • Stratix #1 12 months ago

    I am very much looking forward to playing Zelda, after a gruelling couple of weeks taking professional exams.

  • Mister-Wario #2 12 months ago

    LA Noire seems some staying power behind it, which is good to hear.

  • roz123 #3 12 months ago

    Nice to see a game developed in my part of the country (brink) doing so well. Shame it's a broken mess

  • CaptainKid #4 12 months ago

    I don't get it; Brink is down to 2000 peak players daily.
    Yet is sold very well it seems.

  • Tomo #5 12 months ago

    This makes for some good reading. Very pleased LA Noire has done the business and I'm also pleased for Splash Damage. Despite the mixed reviews, at least they've been rewarded for attempting to innovate and bringing something fresh to the genre.

  • Puzza #6 12 months ago

    seriously why does EUROgamer bother to report what is selling is well in America? How is it useful to their target audience?

  • Quixz #7 12 months ago

    @Puzza

    it's fun boy ammo! :D

  • BloodSaint #8 12 months ago

    @DcP729UK
    Since you can't read properly, this article cleary states the software sales in the month of may. Or perhaps you can't count properly, since Duke Nukem is released in June...

    I think Portal 2 would be probably number 3 at least and possibly number 2 if the Steam sales were counted, too bad steam doesn't release their sales figures T.T

  • spudsbuckley #9 12 months ago

    I presume a lot of those copies of Brink were traded in because there was fuck all playing it when I tried out my rental of it on Sunday.

  • Graveland #10 12 months ago

    And there's still wankers buying Black Ops, after all these months.

  • Haerger #11 12 months ago

    I'm surprised about PS3 sales - thought it'd be down due to PSN outage.

  • Timotei #12 12 months ago

    "And there's still wankers buying Black Ops, after all these months."

    Gamers in only just turning 17 and having responsible parents shocker?
    Edited by Timotei at 14/06/11 @ 08:22

  • Lunatic4ever #13 12 months ago

    I wonder how long Brink will be played online.

  • TechnicPuppet #14 12 months ago

    @Haerger

    PS3 game sales are down and the console numbers are not there. What are you talking about?

  • TechnicPuppet #15 12 months ago

    From another site PS3 sales 140,000, 14% increase.

  • Haerger #16 12 months ago

    @Mr TechnicPuppet

    From NeoGAF - PlayStation 3: 177K (+15%)

    Increase instead of decrease.
    Edited by Haerger at 14/06/11 @ 08:42

  • Toothball #17 12 months ago

    Not really surprising 3DS sales have been light so far. The release of Zelda will probably be the real launch of the 3DS.

  • technotica #18 12 months ago

    I don't think Zelda will be that big a system seller. I think most people either don't care about Zelda, or have played it and don't want to play it again. Parents who want to buy a mobile game system for their children won't buy it just because of Zelda and casual gamers who bought or are considering to buy a 3ds to play games while on the move won't be waiting with baited breath for it either.

    So the target audience for a Zelda remake would be die hard Zelda fans who want to have every Zelda game there is and those who heard about Zelda and are interested but haven't played a Zelda game before.
    Edited by technotica at 14/06/11 @ 09:50

  • kinky_mong #19 12 months ago

    Wonder if Brink is filling up pre-owned shelves in the US as much as it is this side of the pond?

  • BonzoBanana #20 12 months ago

    Ocarina of time is a difficult one to call. Its a fantastic game but many would have played it before. Its a virtual console release on wii and many would have played it there. I've played it on N64, gamecube and original Xbox via emulation. However when I eventually get a a 3DS I might pick up when I see it cheap if it ever goes cheap that is. I don't think Ocarina of time will drive sales of the 3DS console like something like Mario 3D would.

  • cyber_nicco #21 11 months ago

    If the 360 is up 39% for the month "year-on-year" to 270,000 units, and the 360+PS3 are up 28% for the month (is that "year-on-year"?), then couldn't someone here bother to use some math and extrapolate the PS3 sales?

    I can't bother.