'Modern Warfare 2' Rules U.S. Sales Charts In Down Month

By Joseph F. Kovar, CRN
December 11, 2009 4:59 PM ET

NPD on Thursday said the total U.S. market for video and PC games fell 6.6 percent in November compared to last year, but that customers purchased over 6 million copies of the best-selling game, "Modern Warfare 2."

Anita Frazier, an analyst with NPD Group, on Friday wrote in a Twitter feed that November retail game sales, including sales of games for the PC as well as gaming consoles, totaled $1.46 billion, down about 6.6 percent compared to November 2008.

The fall in video game sales is similar to an overall moderate fall in U.S. toy sales in general, NPD reported.

The online news site ThinkDigit.com reported that "Modern Warfare 2" was by far the best-selling video game in November, with sales of 4.2 million copies for the Microsoft Xbox 360 platform and 1.9 million copies for the Sony PS3 platform, quoting NPD figures.

They were followed by "New Super Mario Brothers" for the Wii at 1.4 million copies, "Assassin's Creed 2" for the Xbox 360, and "Left 4 Dead 2" for the Xbox 360 at 744,000 copies.

In terms of hardware, Nintendo was the best seller in November based on NPD data, ThinkDigit.com reported. About 1.7 million Nintendo DS players and 1.3 million Wiis were sold in November, followed by 890,000 Xbox 360s, 710,000 PS3s, 294,000 Sony PSPs, and 203,000 Sony PSPs.

Microsoft's strong showing in November was apparently due to a strong marketing tie-in between it and Activision, the developer of "Modern Warfare 2," ThinkDigit.com reported.

Related: Videos | Slide Shows | ChannelCasts | Comments

Comments by Vanilla

Recent Articles

	18 Attention Grabbers From CES Opening Night OK, so the recession is still lurking like a hungry panther, but that doesn't mean people aren't still captivated by the latest gadgets. Although CES 2010 isn't as big as in previous years, exhibitors at a special opening night event Tuesday showed off products that were dazzling, intriguing, and often downright amusing. Here we offer a glimpse of 18 products that had onlookers jostling for a better look.
	Hot Products Ready For The 2009 Holiday Season At Pepcom's holiday preview event, we got the jump on many new and interesting products, some presented for the first time ever. Here are a few of our favorites.
	Clash Of The E-Book Titans: Sony Reader Vs. Amazon Kindle Vs. Plastic Logic Sony's three new Readers are set to challenge Amazon's Kindle dominance, so we size up Sony Readers, Amazon Kindles and the coming Plastic Logic reader to see who really has the e-reading goods.
	More Slide Shows