April NPD: PS2 outsells PS3 as DS wins

PlayStation 2's 1st April price cut to USD 99 in the States helped the console sell 172,000 units last month and outdo its big brother in the process.

According to the latest figures, PlayStation 3 sold 127,000 units, lagging behind Xbox 360 with its 175,000 sales and of course Nintendo Wii, which shifted an impressive 340,000. The DS was the big winner though, doing 1.04 million sales, although NPD hasn't broken out the DSi numbers.

Nintendo's dominance is also reflected in the top 10 software chart, with Wii Fit and Pokémon Platinum both in the 400,000s, and Mario Kart Wii and Wii Play in third and fourth behind them. New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart DS also feature.

Total sales for games and hardware were down year on year from USD 1.24 billion in April 2008 to USD 1.03bn last month, but NPD analyst Anita Frazier made the not unreasonable point that last April saw the launches of Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart Wii, which had a significant impact. April 2009 is up on April 2007 by comparison.

The complete breakdown and game sales top 10 follows:

US hardware sales for April (rounded):

1. Nintendo DS: 1.04m
2. Wii: 340,000
3. Xbox 360: 175,000
4. PlayStation 2: 172,000
5. PlayStation 3: 127,000
6. PSP: 116,000

US top ten games for April (rounded sales):

1. Wii Fit (Wii) - 471,000
2. Pokémon Platinum (DS) - 433,000
3. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 210,000
4. Wii Play (Wii) - 170,000
5. The Godfather II (Xbox 360) - 155,000
6. Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360) - 122,000
7. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 119,000
8. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 112,000
9. Guitar Hero Aerosmith (Xbox 360) - 110,000
10. The Godfather II (PS3) - 91,000

US sales overall:

• Hardware: USD 391.63m (down 8 per cent)
• Software: USD 510.74m (down 23 per cent)
• Peripherals: USD 129.45m (down 15 per cent)
• Total: USD 1.03bn (down 17 per cent)