Latest US Sales Data: Americans Love 'Football'

The latest US sales data is just in from the NPD market research group and from looking at the figures (below) of top ten selling hardware and games in July SPOnG can conclusively conclude one thing. Americans just love that funny old sport they hilariously term American ‘Football’.

Total industry sales were $925.5 million, up 37 percent year-over-year, with a record $7 billion in sales for the month of July (up by 42.6 percent on 2006).

Hardware sales were up 77.4 percent to $380.8 million, with the Wii and DS topping that particular chart. Unsurprisingly. Which looks like this, for the US in July:

• Nintendo Wii: 425K
• Nintendo DS: 405K
• Sony PlayStation 2: 222K
• Sony PSP: 214K
• Microsoft Xbox 360: 170K
• Sony PlayStation 3: 159K
• Nintendo GBA: 87K

Games wise EA Sports' NCAA Football 08, sold a staggering 789K units (across all platforms) with Activision's Guitar Hero and Nintendo's Wii Play, Mario Party 8 and Pokemon Diamond all selling ‘healthily’.

Top ten best selling games (by units) for July:

1. NCAA Football 08—360—EA—397K
2. Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80s—PS2—Activision—339K
3. Wii Play w/remote—Wii—Nintendo—278K
4. NCAA Football 08—PS2—EA—236K
5. Mario Party 8—Wii—Nintendo—177K
6. NCAA Football 08—PS3—EA—156K
7. Pokemon Diamond—DS—Nintendo—144K
8. Transformers: The Game—PS2—Activision—143K
9. Guitar Hero II w/guitar—PS2—Activision—138K
10. Guitar Hero II w/guitar—360—Activision—108K

Commenting on the data, NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier, said: "The Guitar Hero franchise has solidified its position as one of strongest and freshest video games offerings lately. As long as the future versions continue to bring something new to the table and are fun to play, I see no reason why the franchise can't continue to have great-selling new releases going forward."

She added, "Everyone who has played Rock Band or seen it demonstrated seems really excited about the game, so I think both of these have hit upon something that is really speaking to consumers, and not just the tried and true video gamer. I don't think there are any of us that haven't daydreamed about being a rock star after all."

^{source: Game Daily BIZ}