AfterDawn: News

US hardware sales collapse in May

According to the latest figures from NPD, US video game sales for May collapsed year-on-year, with software, hardware and accessories sales combining to fall 23 percent from May 2008.

Hardware sales were the biggest decliners, dropping 30 percent, with the DS Lite/DSi remaining the only strong seller, with 633,500 units sold for the month. Wii sales fell over 58 percent from 675,000 units sold last May to 290,000 this May. However, Nintendo hit a milestone, selling 20 million Wiis in the US over the console's lifetime.



The Xbox 360 sold 175,000 units and the PlayStation 3 moved 131,000 units. The aging PS2 sold 117,000 units.

Says Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich: "When you look at the Wii number, it's bad on an absolute basis, but relative to the PS3 and 360, Nintendo is still matching them combined. I think the biggest concern is just the hardware market in general. We're due for a round of price cuts, and I think all three manufacturers have reached saturation at current price points."

TOP-SELLING HARDWARE - MAY 2009
Nintendo DS: 633,500
Wii: 289,500
Xbox 360: 175,000
PlayStation 3: 131,000
PlayStation 2: 117,000
PSP: 100,400

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Jun 2009 15:58

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• 3 comments

• Andy7472

  What games were released in May that were supposed to move consoles? As much as I love the Punchout series, I wouldn't buy a console for it. And Infamous For Ps3 was a fun game, But if I didn't already own one ,it wasn't a great enough game to warrant purchasing a system for.

  13.6.2009 03:46 #1

• MrXenu

  Compared to last years game releases and the current world recession atm, console sales are doing amazing atm. No rele console moving games being released at the start of the year, and still decent sales figures. I wonder what would be happening if some actual games were being released.....

  13.6.2009 09:01 #2

• lxhotboy

  I agree with the current new releases being a possible cause along with the countries economy but just wait till Bioshock 2, and Tekken are realeased for the xbox360 and PS3. They are bound to spark some quick sells. I have read some reviews on Bioshock 2 and it looks awesome. If they play their cards right, have just as great a story line as Bioshock and maybe even make it more than Bioshock originally was in greatness, We could very well be looking at a candidate for Game of the Year.

  15.6.2009 00:22 #3