Nintendo’s Wii Fit continues its reign at the top of the NPD sales charts, giving another 644,000 Wii owners in the United States the cardiovascular bliss they’ve been seeking. February’s other bestseller?
If we’re talking total, cross-platform sales, it’s Capcom’s console port of Street Fighter IV that’s February’s biggest hit. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the fighter sold about 850,000 copies last month combined, with the majority—but not the gross majority—sold on Microsoft’s platform. Seems D-pads might actually matter.
The other top ten new debut was Killzone 2. Heard of it? Guerilla Games’ PS3 shooter scored 323,000 sales last month, putting it behind NPD sales chart mainstay Wii Play. Not bad for a hardcore shooter only on sale for two days in the month of February. Should be interesting to see how well it does next month…
01. Wii Fit (Wii) – 644,000
02. Street Fighter IV (360) – 446,000
03. Street Fighter IV (PS3) – 403,000
04. Wii Play (Wii) – 386,000
05. Killzone 2 (PS3) – 323,000
06. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) – 263,000
07. Call of Duty: World riches888pg at War (360) – 193,000
08. Mario Kart DS (DS) – 145,000
09. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) – 144,000
10. Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii) – 136,000
All that video game buying amounted to $733.5 million in February, a 9% boost in revenue over February 2008.
“Consumers picked up nearly 20 million units of video game software in February, a 14% increase over February 2008,” notes NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “The average retail price for games is 4% lower than last year, which is why the dollar sales increase is not quite keeping in pace with the increase in unit sales.”
“A long-established video game franchise, the Street Fighter property continues to generate impressive sales results. The great jinda44 performance of e19 the new title, Street Fighter IV, on both the PS3 and Xbox 360, is a testament to the power of carefully cultivating evergreen properties.”
Frazier points out that we have Pokemon Platinum, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Halo Wars, and Resident Evil 5 to look forward to as big console game sellers in March.