US PS3 sales up 285 per cent

By Games Industry.biz Published 14 December, 2007

That's just silly.

PlayStation 3 sales increased 285 per cent from October to November according to NPD Group sales data, marking the largest sales increase of any hardware platform.

Sony sold 466,000 PS3 consoles, 496,000 PS2 consoles, and 567,000 PSP handhelds in the US in November.

Two PS3 titles, Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, were ranked in the top ten software list across all consoles.

Sony also provided updated information on PlayStation Network usage.

According to Sony, there are now more than 1.8 million registered PlayStation Network users in North America. Together, they have downloaded more than 34.5 million pieces of content. Worldwide, more than 3 million users are registered and have downloaded more than 60 million pieces of content.

A recent price promotion for Calling all Cars, Everyday Shooter, flOw and PixelJunk Racers resulted in a combined 920 per cent increase in total downloads.

GamesIndustry.biz didn't buy that many games in October/November so it must be you lot.

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Comments (54) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • t8yman #1 4 years ago

    did they comment on singstore psn usage? no - thats because there fucking isnt any!!

  • dadrester #2 4 years ago

    hmm... i wonder if they third the total global users. they ought to, since everyone i know has a European, US and Japanese account.

  • Darren #3 4 years ago

    Nice to see PS3 sales picking up but then it is Christmas. I suspect they'll drop to insignificant figures in the New Year though. Sony still have a long way to go to catch up with the 360 but, you know, I think it's inevitable that it will happen.

    Why?

    Well as the machine drops in price and the games catalogue gets larger then the user base will increase. There are no doubt a lot of PS2 owners waiting for the perfect chance to upgrade and eventually a game will come along (like GTA IV or MGS 4) which they can't play on their current system, or the games will dry up, and they'll be tempted to move up to a PS3. After all, if they wanted an Xbox 360 or Wii then they'd have bought one by now, right? Microsoft don't have that luxury as they killed off the original Xbox when they released the 360 so it doesn't have a userbase to entice anymore.

    From what I've read, Xbox 360 sales are good but by no means impressive. Impressive is how you'd describe the Wii though... that machine's sales are following the same pattern as the PS2 I believe so if it can keep it up, it could well become this generation's equivalent of the PS2, i.e. the market leader.

  • Dizzy #4 4 years ago

    Up 300% and still outsold by everything else. Good news?
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 09:51

  • Johnson #5 4 years ago

    Read again - the 360's sales increased by over 400,000 October to November. It's only when sales are measured in percentages of how that console was doing previously that Sony can claim any success.

    The PS3 is still dead last and still by some distance.

  • Beano #6 4 years ago

    Waiting for the X-boys to arrive...

  • LeD #7 4 years ago

    Darren: the Xbox 360 still outsold the PS3, with over 720 000 units sold. So the gap keeps widening in the USA, not narrowing. Simple maths.

  • bigbadbeasty #8 4 years ago

    I can't help that feel that the PS3 sales are high because no one can get a Wii for love nor money :)

  • Wash #9 4 years ago

    Good stuff, and about time.

    Is interesting when looking at hardware sales and comparing them to software sales, i personally just think that it proves a console doesnt need good games to sell.

    Inveitable really tho considerin the time of year, price drop and bundles available.

    Good stuff.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #10 4 years ago

    Impressive is how you'd describe the Wii though... that machine's sales are following the same pattern as the PS2 I believe so if it can keep it up, it could well become this generation's equivalent of the PS2, i.e. the market leader.


    Ah, but PS2 owners actually bought games. The wii is half games console, half Robosapien/Furby/Plush Tellytubby/Cabbage Patch Kid/ insert scarse christmas toy fad here.

    It's a wonder we aren't knee-deep in cheap Chinese motion sensing knock-offs by now.


    Edit: whoops, thread was moving faster than I'd thought, had to quote what i was responding to.
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 09:54

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #11 4 years ago

    This isn't really that good news as it's still trailing the other two by some margin. Perhaps one some more big exclusives break this change, but in the meantime it seems that the Xbox is the smarter choice for those wanting the HD experience and the Wii is a total alternative.

  • GamesConnoisseur #12 4 years ago

    Not to rain on anyone parade, but please do go to the link provided at the above article and in NPD there is interesting nuggets;

    "During November, Nintendo sold 981,000 Wii consoles, Microsoft sold 770,000 Xbox 360 consoles, and Sony sold 466,000 consoles. The Nintendo DS handheld, however, outsold all of the consoles with 1.53 million sold in November. Both the PSP and the PS2 outsold the PS3, with 567,000 and 496,000 units respectively."

    Indeed the increase is a good news for Sony but compared to their rivals their lead is worsening, as for every consoles that other sold more is the longer it ll take to overtake.

    I agree that PS3 is quite likely to do far better in 2008 than 2007, I think most of us accepted that. However as to the overtaking X360, its up in the air I think. If X360 was able to sell 304,000 more than PS3 in Nov (Christmas period though) that is 304,000 consoles to catch up at a later date.

    Darren is correct that there are many PS2 owners out there not yet upgraded.

    EDIT: Others got here first! But same points and EG headline can be misleading. I think they do so on purpose especially on Friday before the weekend and take bets as to how many posts by Monday!
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 10:00

  • seasidebaz #13 4 years ago

    sony are doing great, although they could do with getting a few more units on shelves, they've run out everywhere in the past week!

  • alpha-0ne #14 4 years ago

    WOW just shows how bad the situation is for sony when they increase sales by 300% and still get outsold by 300,000 (360) and 500,000 (Wii)

    If you look at software sales the 360 is totally dominating with more than 50% of all sales

    ##Note that last month the 360 ousold the PS3 by 240,000 this month it is 300,000 the gap is widening##

    The wii is is a league of its own..
    Edited by 4 at 14/12/07 @ 10:11

  • MoGamer2006 #15 4 years ago

    Whenever a company uses %s in a press statement, you always know there's something fishy afoot.

    "Hey, we sold 1 PS3 last month, but we sold 4 this month - woo, sales up 300%! Victory is in our grasp."

    It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

  • Eighthours #16 4 years ago

    What an interesting spin on the NPD numbers! Why no mention of the amazing Wii sales, the ridiculous DS sales, or the fact that the 360 is continuing to pull away from the PS3?

  • Dizzy #17 4 years ago

    I expect an official Sony press release using the "playstation brand" trick soon ;)

  • alpha-0ne #18 4 years ago

    @Eighthours

    I agree i have to question eurogamers motive on this report, very selective reporting

    Context is very important and there is non in this report a 300% increase and still being outsolf by over 300,000 is still a bad situation
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 10:15

  • killest #19 4 years ago

    ps3lol

  • menage #20 4 years ago

    Infinitely % more WIN!!!

  • bioreit #21 4 years ago

    Please, please please don't take this as trolling, but I'm just genuinely wondering why the article, in the journey from GamesIndustry to Eurogamer, became an article focusing purely on the Sony side?

    Are Nintendo and Microsoft-oriented articles on the way too?

    Don't get me wrong - it's fantastic news that the sales are picking up - just a tad perplexed as to why we get to read that Sony get two titles "ranked in the top ten software list across all consoles", but hear nothing about the Wii and 360 titles, or where these two titles actually are in the list, for example.

    Again, not trolling, just commenting on the change of focus.

  • Garulon #22 4 years ago

    Uncharted died on it's arse, the PS2 and PS3 are dead last out of all the consoles sold, and nobody with a PS3 is buying software for it.

    Great times!

  • GingerNathan #23 4 years ago

    The NPD Nov07 figures (in a format that possibly should have been used instead of this article)
    - DS Lite: 1.53m 1.07m (234%)
    - Wii: 981K 462K (89%)
    - Xbox 360: 770K 404K (110%)
    - PSP: 567K 281K (98%)
    - PS2: 496K 312K (169%)
    - PS3: 466K 345K (285%)

    and the Japanese for last week.
    1. Nintendo DS: 168,267
    2. Nintendo Wii: 115,057
    3. PlayStation Portable: 91,481
    4. PlayStation 3: 38,123
    5. PlayStation 2: 11,987
    6. Xbox 360: 8876

  • ElasticTangent #24 4 years ago

    I've got both a 360 and a PS3 so I don't have any real bias here.

    For me, I don't care how many PS3's are sold. As long as the software keeps on rolling out and is of a decent quality what does it matter? Sony are hardly likely to just stop making the PS3 because of poor sales are they? There are great games for the 360 and the PS3 so I'll keep on buying both.

    I actually like the fact that the PS3 is less popular than the 360. Most of my non-techie mates believe all the hype about the PS3 and think that it's faster than a Cray supercomputer so I still get kudos for having one.

  • Darren #25 4 years ago

    LOL

  • Dizzy #26 4 years ago

    BTW total sales NPD charts:

    http://ch azums.shackspace.com/SalesLifeT...

    http://ch azums.shackspace.com/Perspectiv...
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 11:02

  • MoGamer2006 #27 4 years ago

    @ElasticTangent - "I actually like the fact that the PS3 is less popular than the 360."

    Ha! Publishers and developers don't, and nor will PS3 owners when fewer exclusives are available for it... oh, and don't expect the quality of ports to increase any time soon either! After all, why waste precious resource on a version of a game that'll sell a handful of copies?

  • L42yB #28 4 years ago

    Hmmm.... I smell BS

  • ElasticTangent #29 4 years ago

    @MoGamer2006 - I'd have thought that Sony would do more to get PS3 exclusives if the platform was struggling cos we all know that exclusives sell consoles. I'm guessing that Sony own enough software companies to keep them coming. If not I'll play them on the 360 ;-).

  • Santino #30 4 years ago

    i have to agree with the other posters who are wondering why simply all of the numbers for all systems weren't posted or even mentioned instead of just the worst performing one.

  • Vin #31 4 years ago

    Utterly dire numbers.

    Unfortunate really, Uncharted is pretty fucking good.

  • Scump #32 4 years ago

    The 360 is still awful in Japan. Being slightly racist here but I suspect those in Japan may not entirely love the physical dimentions of the 360. Compared to the other two machines, the 360 I feel just ain't the sleekest...mighty power hoggin block and what have ye.

  • bioreit #33 4 years ago

    Note to PSWhores:

    You are aware that this entire article and therefore comments section is concerned with the US market and its sales figures, aren't you?

    Maybe stick to that line of commenting, or ask why EUROgamer is concerned with NPD figures.

  • miiiguel #34 4 years ago

    US Sale...

    But, but... in Japan! What about Japan??! We love Japan! Japan! Japan! And also Europe but not as much...
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 12:13

  • Raya #35 4 years ago

    Once again - half the story from EG! They're really trying to help sony out at the moment - all competitors sell better but EG reports on Sony's increase

  • kungphu #36 4 years ago


    Note to PSWhores:

    You are aware that this entire article and therefore comments section is concerned with the US market and its sales figures, aren't you?

    Maybe stick to that line of commenting, or ask why EUROgamer is concerned with NPD figures.


    Slow news day? Maybe they are all hung over from a staff christmas party
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 12:15

  • miiiguel #37 4 years ago

    Until those Americans buy 360's we don't like them!
    Japan! Please don't let use down! Keep on buying our love Sony!

  • FooAtari #38 4 years ago

    Oh noes EG are PS3 biased!

    Anyway...

    @Arbiter. True US charts are not the whole story. According to VG Charts these are the worldwide figures;

    Wii 16.29 mil
    Xbox 14.56 mil
    PS3 7.19 mil

    It would appear that the sales of the 360 in the US make up for the lack of sales in Japan in comparison to the PS3. Over the last month things have been fairly equal;

    [link url=h ttp://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3& reg2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39390&end=39425
    ]http://vg chartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wi...[/link]

    Europe is pretty interesting where over the last month PS3 would appear to be outselling the 360, but still lag behind the Wii

    [link url=http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=Europ e&cons2=PS3®2=Europe&cons3=X360®3=Europe&start=39390&e nd=39425
    ]http://vg chartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wi...[/link]

    However there are still nearly twice as many 360's out there than PS3's

    360 190k
    PS3 110

    Erm, so yeah that was a bit more in depth than I thought it would... Will be interesting to see how it all works out after Xmas

  • miiiguel #39 4 years ago

    Oh the sorrow!
    Sony is my life, Sony is my wife.

  • sd99 #40 4 years ago

    This article is hugely biased. Are you getting a bung from Sony or something? Sure sales are up - it's Christmas - but it was still outsold by everything else. Handhelds, Next Gen consoles, and it's last gen predecessor.

    This isn't a sony bash - it's a EG bash...

  • madmaxi #41 4 years ago

    Selling Consoles is fine.... I work in the retail industry and I buy games for a retailer. What strikes me the most in all this discussions of who sells how many consoles which always seems to be the focus, is that people tend to forget, its the games that actually make the money, and thats where the landscape changes drastically. Currently Xbox 360 games are selling better then i have ever seen compared to market size, hit rate on games is very good, Playstation 3 is growing fast and clearly will do good in its lifetime, the Wii however has horrible sales in games and compared to the others is lagging well behind and its getting worse it seems. Only games that sell are Nintendo games and its not long till third party players will abandon itg or use it for cheap and therefore low quality products only if this continues.

  • miiiguel #42 4 years ago

    An article in a "blasphemic American site", those americans are really infidels! SONY!:

    "Though Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all tried to spin their "Black Friday" sales last month, the latest dispatch from the console-war front leaves no doubt as to the victor. Over 981,000 Wiis were sold during NPD's November reporting period, besting the Xbox 360's 770,000-unit total and more than doubling the Playstation 3's 466,000-unit tally. Sony's most venerable platform, the PlayStation 2, continued to outpace its younger brother with 496,000 units in sales"

  • Netfreak #43 4 years ago

    Good job EG!

    "Censoring" sales for X360 & Wii can really make your potential owner CNET very proud!

    Keep it up!

  • Rash' #44 4 years ago

    The key to this story is that Sony is getting the units out there, which will give publishers more incentive to invest in the console. I think the Japanese giant will be happy with the situation because it's catalog of games are no where near comparable to that of 360's. That situation will of course change next year. This year for Sony was obviously damage limitation. With 360's sales in Europe and Japan currently not as impressive as in America, 2008 will prove most interesting.
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 13:21

  • deaner #45 4 years ago

    Percentages aren't for being compared to the competition, but they're quite indicative of consumer interest levels.

    If the Neo Geo's sales were 500,000 one week, and the Jaguar's were 100,000. Then the following week the Neo Geo sold 550,000 and the Jag sold 300,000...

    Yes the former is still selling much better, and that's a different arguement. But the latter is visibly increasing its own consumer base at a faster rate, thereby raising awareness in the marketplace - which itself attracts more consumers and developers.

    It's Business Economics 101 - not Lewis Hamilton at the Formula 1.

    You lot make yourself look stupid by taking these sorts of reports out of context in order to release a 'my console is better than yours' rant.

    EDIT: Mmmm, italics!
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/07 @ 13:10

  • GamesConnoisseur #46 4 years ago

    Madmaxi +1

    Fully agree that its games sellthrough that are far more important, X360 is undisputed where the games are selling like hot cake but PS3 will certainly be up there and publishers wont afford to miss either X360 or PS3.

    Wii, a great novelty, my kids and wife LOVED it to death but they are so chuffed playing same games every time.

    Different type of audience and the problem is that casual gamers are just that, casual buyers. So having massive number of consoles will help but low attach rate cancel most of advantages that bring.

  • Santino #47 4 years ago

    @madmaxi

    just out of curiosity...yes 360s software sales are incredible, but i'm confused as to how u put the wii software sales are 'horrible' and ps3 as 'very good', when guitar hero 3 has sold more than a million worldwide already, and just this latest NPD the big ps3 1st party exclusive Uncharted was outsold by 3rd party Wii games Umbrella Chronicles and Lego Star Wars. The only charting ps3 games COD4 and Ass Creed were at no 7 and 10, both being outsold by their 360 versions around 3:1, and that is with only the ps3 logo appearing at the end of basically all the ads. If any system has under performing software it is the ps3, i dont buy into the 'it'll pick up and do very well cos its a playstation' talk.

  • NickJD #48 4 years ago

    You spin me right round baby right round.

  • Garulon #49 4 years ago

    How is Phil Harrison not sacked yet? Sony firstparty haven't had a hit since Resistance (and that's only because it's a launch title), thirdparty are either not bothering or knocking out shit as fast as they can (Orange Box, Pro Evo), the PS2 is dying on it's arse with no firstparty titles (so much about "managing" the PS2 lifecycle) yet the bald smug little tosser still draws a paycheck. Does he actually have to start murduring PS3 owners before they kick his pallid little arse out on the street?

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #50 4 years ago

    Sony in total have sold over 1.5million units of console hardware in November in the US then, and no doubt 1-2 games for each unit, so even if PS3 sales are low the gaming division as a whole is certainly chugging along just fine.

  • Stonker #51 4 years ago

    PS3 inferior framerates FTW!!

  • ronuds #52 4 years ago

    "Nice to see all mthe xbots with their panties in a twist."

    How's that now? Why would fanboys of a console that sold 300k more than its major competitor have their panties in a twist? This after yet another price drop in one of the biggest shopping months in the country. "Panties in a twist"? No, I'd say xbots are pointing and laughing.

    Software sales are even more embarrassing - CoD4 on the 360 sold 1.5m copies, which was over 1m more than the PS3 version.

    Software Sales:
    November 2007 Top 10 Video Games Rank # Units
    360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION (CORP) NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 1 1.57 million

    WII SUPER MARIO GALAXY NINTENDO OF AMERICA NOV 2007 EVERYONE (E) 2 1.12 million

    360 ASSASSIN'S CREED UBISOFT NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 3 980K

    PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK ACTIVISION (CORP) OCT 2007 TEEN (T) 4 967K

    WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA FEB 2007 EVERYONE (E) 5 564K

    360 MASS EFFECT MICROSOFT (CORP) NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 6 473K

    PS3 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION (CORP) NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 7 444K

    WII GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK ACTIVISION (CORP) OCT 2007 TEEN (T) 8 426K

    360 HALO 3 MICROSOFT (CORP) SEP 2007 MATURE (M) 9 387K

    PS3 ASSASSIN'S CREED UBISOFT NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 10 377K

    Mario and Sonic at the Olympics (Wii) - 330k

    Rock Band (360) - 312k

    Lego Star Wars (Wii)- 180k

    High School Musical (Wii) - 180k

    Resident Evil UC (Wii) - 130k

    Uncharted (PS3) - 117k

  • madmaxi #53 4 years ago

    Santino posted
    14-Dec-07 13:37:08 @madmaxi

    just out of curiosity...yes 360s software sales are incredible, but i'm confused as to how u put the wii software sales are 'horrible' and ps3 as 'very good', when guitar hero 3 has sold more than a million worldwide already, and just this latest NPD the big ps3 1st party exclusive Uncharted was outsold by 3rd party Wii games Umbrella Chronicles and Lego Star Wars. The only charting ps3 games COD4 and Ass Creed were at no 7 and 10, both being outsold by their 360 versions around 3:1, and that is with only the ps3 logo appearing at the end of basically all the ads. If any system has under performing software it is the ps3, i dont buy into the 'it'll pick up and do very well cos its a playstation' talk.


    In order to explain myself and make it a bit clearer

    Lets say we sell during the month of October

    2000 Xbox 360 Macines
    14000 Xbox 360 games
    per machine sold thats 7 games or hit ratio 7

    1000 Playstation 3 Machines
    4000 playstation 3 games
    per machines sold thats 4 games or hit ratio of 4

    2800 Wii Machines
    5500 Wii games
    per machine sold thats less then 2 games per machine sold so hit ratio is less then 2

    This is what i was saying and this is the reality

    Electronic Arts in the US made 4xtimes the ammount of money on Xbox 360 games in oktokber coz its selling more copies of every game it releases on the Xbox..

    Of Course Wii has good games but that does not change the hit ratio on month to month basis...

    Hope you see my point

    "oh and the point is that to reach the same ammount of games sold as with for example xbox current wii sales need to tripple, just to equal the sales of xbox 360 games, that its something game makers do NOT ignore"


    and i own
    Xbox 360
    Playstation 3
    and yes Wii
    and i like them all...

    Edited by 2 at 14/12/07 @ 20:54

  • FooAtari #54 4 years ago

    I think the Wii is becoming kind of interesting.

    I don't think software sales are relative to the amount of hardware units sold. I think this because a percentage of Wii's are sold as Wii Sport machines. But then again I don't believe a low attachment rate will stop developers writing games, the amount of units out there makes it far to appealing.

    The funny thing is, even though, at the moment the PS3 is lagging behind in sales, it's still doing better compared to the competition than both the Xbox and GC did comapred to the PS2, so far at least.

    The other stupid thing here is only looking at NPD sales figures, kind of skews things a bit as looking at the worlwide picture the PS3 and 360 are pretty even on sales at the moment due to PS3 currently outselling the 360 in Japan and Europe.

    What does it all mean though? The PS2 soundly thrashed the GC and Xbox last gen, yet I didn't regret buying an Xbox and didn't have a shortage of games to play.

  • mooseman721 #55 4 years ago

    I always buy the n64/gabecube/saturn/dreamcast. I bought a PS3 to be on the safe side this time. I'd LOL but its not funny anymore. In fairness I did try 4 of microsofts best and I refuse to buy the novelty.