NPD: PS3 beats Xbox 360 in May

by Andrew Yoon { Jun 12th 2008 at 8:18PM }

The console wars continue raging on. May's NPD figures are out, and PS3 has pushed out another victory this month, beating Xbox 360 by 22k units. The PS3 sold over 208k units this month, an increase of 155% over last year's May figures. Grand Theft Auto IV undoubtedly helped PS3 sales, with over 442k units of the game sold for PS3 in May alone. According to Sony, more than 32% of US PS3 owners now own a copy of Rockstar's latest (that's a 6% higher attach rate than Xbox 360). The exclusive releases of SingStar and Haze may have also helped sales.

Sony is undoubtedly pleased by this month's results, but imagine how ecstatic they'll be next month. PS3 sales are sure to spike in June, thanks to the release of the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle.

Jack Tretton added in a recent press release: "Leading into a pivotal season packed with blockbuster titles and unique online service offerings, consumers have chosen the PS3 as their home entertainment console of choice - showcased by its year-over-year sales growth of 155 percent. With its commanding line up of software titles and enhanced movie playback capabilities, the PS3 has seen phenomenal momentum with a software sales increase of more than 234 percent and additional studio support of delivering content in the Blu-ray format. The dual platform release of the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV title reaffirmed its legacy on the PlayStation platform with a 6 percent higher attach rate than Xbox 360, reinforcing consumer choice of PS3. Poised for continued momentum, PS3 is delivering on its breadth and depth of exclusive titles to its gaming fans with today's prized exclusive title launch of Metal Gear Solid 4. The media have hailed 2008 as the year of the PS3, and with solid sales and growth opportunities ahead, we feel consumers are saying the same."

- Wii: 675.1K

39.1K (-5.5%)
- DS: 452.6K

37.8K (+9.1%)
- PS3: 208.7K

21.6K (+11.5%)
- PSP: 182.3K

10.4K (-5.4%)
- X360: 186.6K

1.4K (-0.7%)
- PS2: 132.7K

8.3K (+6.7%)

May Software

1. GTA IV – Xbox 360 – 871.3K
2. Mario Kart Wii – Wii – 787.4K
3. Wii Fit (w/ Balance Board) – Wii – 687.7K
4. GTA IV – PS3 – 442.9K
5. Wii Play w/ remote – Wii – 294.6K
6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Wii – 171.1K
7. Iron Man – PS2 – 130.6K
8. Guitar Hero III – Wii – 116.8K
9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness – DS – 107K
10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time – DS – 102K

Tags: npd, ps3

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

David Van (Cool Prizes Inc.) @ Jun 12th 2008 8:31PM

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golden sapphire @ Jun 12th 2008 8:39PM

damn homey!

Moorio - XBL: peacebyanymeans @ Jun 12th 2008 9:45PM

You guys voted this up?

Haohmaru @ Jun 12th 2008 10:29PM

lol, fanboys.

ajiezer @ Jun 12th 2008 8:35PM

true june will be better I personally going to buy another PS3 the MGS bundle of course

darth balls @ Jun 13th 2008 2:35AM

why not just buy the game?

ajiezer @ Jun 13th 2008 11:02AM

@ darth balls

Because I want to build a network of ps3 to play with my local friends, (make tournaments, etc) in my home but I want to do it step by $tep, and also because I hate moving my ps3 from home to office and back :P

golden sapphire @ Jun 12th 2008 8:37PM

take that haters-for-no-reason xboxers

doc j @ Jun 12th 2008 8:39PM

"pot, meet kettle. kettle, pot."

golden sapphire @ Jun 12th 2008 8:41PM

what the hell???

GridloQ @ Jun 12th 2008 8:43PM

The pot and the kettle are both black yet the pot points out that the kettle is black, not realizing that it, too, is black.

golden sapphire @ Jun 12th 2008 8:45PM

well dont get at me for that... didnt you read the other comments? why you getting at me only?

GridloQ @ Jun 12th 2008 8:50PM

I'm not, I've just always wanted to explain that idiom to someone.

doc j @ Jun 12th 2008 9:31PM

Yours was merely the most egregiously hypocritical.

I have been a Sony supporter since I got the PlayStation in 1998. But, come on, let's show some thought. The 360 has a huge head start in the States. The Wii is dominating *everywhere*. I agree it is good news that the PlayStation had higher sales than the 360 following GTAIV's release - it is certainly better than having fewer sales - but it is going to take many, many months of such miniscule differences to catch the 360.

All that aside, what my post really meant was that we all think it is very sophomoric when XBots come on these boards and bash the PS3 for no good reason, so it would be hypocritical of ME to not think of your comment similarly. I called you on it, because I hope to show that some PS3 owners (even self-described PS3 fanboys such as myself) have no need for that sort of thing.

Why does either side have to celebrate by insulting the other?

Viva La Champ @ Jun 12th 2008 8:44PM

This imo is very stupid. I have a ps3, wii, and 360. Now the 360's been out sense 05, and the ps3 has been out sense 07 *I think* anyways, the 360's had amazing sales..Halo 3, gears of war, and well alot of people have already purchased their 360's. So now people are getting ps3's. that doesn't mean there beating the 360. it just shows the 360 is starten to slow down, because so many people have them atm. The new xbox will probably be out a good time before the ps4, but again you can't say the ps3 is going to beat the 360 just because it sold more in one month...that's stupid.

Oh, and the psp is doing horribly XD I love my psp though :3

P.s. MGS4 FTW!!!! :D

joe @ Jun 12th 2008 9:05PM

Champ,

Sorry but your confused on this. The ps3 beat the 360 for a month of sales. This means in the US territory that the PS3 is gaining on the xbox 360. The xbox 360 slowing is NOT inevitable at this point. The ps2 was still gaining on its competitors for years.

Since the year over year PS3 sales are increasing this mean the gain isn't due to the Xbox360 slowing in sales but due to the PS3 increase in sales. The 360 is doing the same as always.

The PSP is also doing pretty awesome right now. The DS has market saturation and people are turning to the PSP for new games and systems.

dunnypop @ Jun 12th 2008 9:55PM

I have all 3 systems, and currently I only play my 360 because most of my friends use it and they have headsets.
I'll dust off the ps3 once my friends pick it up. I think the ps3 is going to get some traction now since they have a tonne of games coming out for it.
the Wii's popularity should die down soon... unless they have another wii fit thing.

JAH75157 @ Jun 12th 2008 8:49PM

*insert meaningful post here*

goes back to MGS4

-me

Spider-man_ps3 @ Jun 12th 2008 8:55PM

yay for the ps3 moving up to 2nd place.next is 1st place.

OAKside @ Jun 12th 2008 9:34PM

OMG math!

WTangoFoxtrot @ Jun 12th 2008 9:24PM

im confused. does Jack Treton realize the 360 version of GTA sold twice of what the PS3 version did.....

emaxximus @ Jun 12th 2008 9:34PM

Find out what attach rate means

SharpShooter @ Jun 12th 2008 9:37PM

I'm confused, do you realize that their talking about attach rate and not units sold. The 360 came out a year before so it's obvious they wouldn't talk units sold. Attach rate is how many people with PS3s/360s bought the game. So if 10 out of 100 people bought GTA IV, that equals 10% attach rate.

WTangoFoxtrot @ Jun 12th 2008 9:36PM

i know what attach rate means mate, its something lame MS has been using all this time to try to distract one from the true picture, just dint expect Tretton to go over his head and make a statement like that.

Phantom25_95 @ Jun 12th 2008 9:38PM

The PS3 version sold better because there are less people than 360's . If the 360 version sold 3 times as many units , then sales would have been equal . 360 fanboys should note that they shouldn't brag about having double the sales when they have triple the user base.

DjDATZ @ Jun 13th 2008 9:58AM

So? The attach rate really means nothing in terms of ONE game. When talking about CONSOLE ATTACH RATES that is SIGNIFICANT to publishers looking at where to put their games. This just means that there was a higher percentage of GTA IV sold on the PS3 than 360 relative to their install base. I would be surprised if this wasn't in the PS3's favour... Here's the math for you, just to show how completely irrelevant a statistic it is.

GTA IV PS3 Sales/PS3 Install Base - GTA IV 360 sales/360 Install Base

And that is 6% higher? Well that's nice. Who really cares? Not me or anyone that realises the significance behind this statistic...

What IS important, especially to Rockstar is that the 360 version sold twice that of the PS3 version. Not to mention that there'll be a fair bit more sales of the game itself when the DLC hits this holiday.

All this will probably fall on deaf ears...

Ryan @ Jun 12th 2008 10:24PM

Look, we're all ignoring the biggest error in this blog post:

Let's be honest here... Haze didn't help sell any units at all.

DrunkRaba @ Jun 13th 2008 12:36AM

I thought that was the biggest mistake as well. I'd wager Commando 3 moved just as many consoles as Haze...

Eggy @ Jun 13th 2008 6:49AM

Haze sold well in Europe. Not alot of gamers care about what some people (reviewers) think.

uh-oh polio @ Jun 12th 2008 10:25PM

ps3 FTW.....at least in May

Flox @ Jun 12th 2008 10:26PM

I really don't understand why people post when they have zero idea what they are talking about. This, my friends, is one of the failures of the interwebs. Anyone that can post, thinks their opinion is valid, and their information 'factual'.

The 360 has indeed been out since 2005. The PS3 and Wii launched approx a year later, in late 2006.

The 360 has a large lead in the US of A, but the PS3 is trouncing it in Japan, and outselling it in Europe as well. The PS3 will, at it's present rate, have a higher installed base than the 360 in the 'other' segment (ie: not Japan or America) by year's end.

Sales figures: (vgchartz.com)

PS3 - 13.26 million worldwide
Japan - 2.13 mil
America - 4.99 mil
'Other' - 6.14 mil

360 - 19.13 million worldwide
Japan - 610,000
America - 11.66 mil
'Others' - 6.85 mil

So, Japan - 360 will never do much there.

America - better than a 2-1 lead for the 360, with a one year headstart, the the PS3 slowly gaining ground.

Europe/other - A 70k lead with a one year headstart, and the PS3 outselling it by a solid margin each month.

Additionally, a look at the Hardware Sales from Launch (vgchartz.com) category shows that the 360 and PS3 both sold at the same rate for their first 58 weeks of existence (8 million each). Now, if you look at both consoles for their first 82 weeks of existence, the PS3 has sold 13.1 million consoles, and the 360 sold almost 10.2 million at that point. So, from weeks 58 to 82 of their respective lifetimes, the PS3 outsold the 360, 5.1 million to 2.2 million.

So, assuming (and this won't necessarily play out) that the trends continue, the PS3 will at some point in the next year or two surpass the 360 in worldwide sales.

Just some numbers for people to crunch on.

And, I agree, the fanboy bashing on both sides it annoying and the sign of a weak, insecure mind.

Haohmaru @ Jun 12th 2008 10:31PM

I like it when people actually show some intellect around here. Agree 100% on the point about fanboys.

mavbsbll21 @ Jun 13th 2008 1:23AM

And let us not forget about the 33% failure rate of the XBOX 360. They already quoted that it has cost them 1 billion $$$.

Rowdehaj @ Jun 13th 2008 1:36AM

And THESE figures are why I am dumbfounded at Squeenix's JRPGs coming to Xbox 360. It's just not a viable market.

fossett44 @ Jun 13th 2008 12:03AM

this will be be happing for the rest of the ps3 life time

utterer @ Jun 13th 2008 12:26AM

Sadly of the 35% of the PS3 owners that also have GTAIV, only 10 people play it online.

Viva La Champ @ Jun 13th 2008 1:32AM

haha wow, I got a thumbs down? Really it's about time the ps3 got some sales, but it still doesn't mean it's the best console. I have a ps3, and tbh it sucks. I pay for xbox live, and I get what I pay for. If sony keeps up with the updates then i'll get back to my ps3, but after mgs4 I don't know what other game i'll be buying for it..well killzone 2:P

P.s. I'm not a fanboy, but i'm stating my own opinion >< I still love meh playstation, just not the ps3 :/

Rowdehaj @ Jun 13th 2008 1:37AM

Go away.

Laurens Holst @ Jun 13th 2008 5:44AM

Even without the 11% increase in PS3 sales from last month, the PS3 still outsells the XBox 360; the PS3 sold 187,1K units last month, and the XBox 360 sold 186.6K units this month. Good to see sales picking up, even in the US!

Although it’ll take quite a bit more to see the PS3 catching up with the XBox 360 in terms of installed base. Got to have patience… maybe MGS4 will help :) (which, by the way, is awesome!).

tan @ Jun 13th 2008 8:31AM

'Grand Theft Auto IV title reaffirmed its legacy on the PlayStation platform with a 6 percent higher attach rate than Xbox 360'

does no one know that way more people own 360's?
therefore the attach rate may have been 6% higher but you have to take into account how many consoles each company has sold.
either way these figures are impressive and i expect them to be much much higher next month after metal gear!