Official U.S. sales figures for consoles and games, Dec '07

Released at the end of last week, these sets of sales figures for the U.S. gaming market, for December 2007 and also for the whole of that year, make for some very interesting reading indeed (source data from NeoGAF.com):

All Hardware, December 2007
1) Nintendo DS - 2.47 Million
2) Wii - 1.35 Million
3) Xbox 360 - 1.26 Million
4) PlayStation 2 - 1.1 Million
5) PSP - 1.06 Million
6) PlayStation 3 - 797.0 K

Top 10 Software, December 2007
1) 360 Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 1.47 Million*
2) Wii Super Mario Galaxy - 1.40 Million
3) PS2 Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock - 1.25 Million*
4) Wii Play with Remote - 1.08 Million
5) 360 Assassin's Creed - 893.7 K*
6) 360 Halo 3 - 742.7 K*
7) NDS Brain Age 2: More Training In Minutes A Day - 659.5 K
8) PS2 Madden NFL 08 - 655.2 K
9) 360 Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock - 624.6 K
10) Wii Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - 613.0 K

*Includes Collector's, Limited, Legendary, Bundles (Guitars) Editions

All Hardware, Full Year 2007 (Life to Date)
1) Nintendo DS - 8.50 Million (17.65 Million)
2) Wii - 6.29 Million (7.38 Million)
3) Xbox 360 - 4.62 Million (9.15 Million)
4) PSP - 3.82 Million (10.47 Million)
5) PlayStation 2 - 3.97 Million (41.12 Million)
6) PlayStation 3 - 2.56 Million (3.25 Million)

Top 10 Software, Full Year 2007
1) 360 Halo 3 (September Release) - 4.82 Million*
2) Wii Play with Remote (February Release) - 4.12 Million
3) 360 Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (November Release) - 3.04 Million*
4) PS2 Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock (October Release) - 2.72 Million*
5) Wii Super Mario Galaxy (November Release) - 2.52 Million
6) NDS Pokemon Diamond (April Release) - 2.48 Million
7) PS2 Madden NFL 08 (August Release) - 1.90 Million
8) PS2 Guitar Hero 2 (November 2006 Release) - 1.89 Million*
9) 360 Assassin's Creed (November Release) - 1.87 Million*
10) Wii Mario Party 8 (May Release) - 1.82 Million

*Includes Collector's, Limited, Legendary, Bundles (Guitars) Editions


What's clear from all of the above is that the Nintendo DS and Wii console systems are doing fantastically well - clearly Nintendo's best hardware year for ages, possibly ever. I wonder how much of that success, if any, is due to former die-hard Sega fans now firmly switching their loyalty to Nintendo, in the light of recent and future Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Team and related releases on the two Nintendo systems.

Meanwhile, Sony's Playstation 3 continues to trail in last place against all of its rivals, including its own predecessor. (And all of Sony's systems are selling less than those of Nintendo and Microsoft.) Oh dear. For me, it's not such sad news, as Sony's earlier consoles helped kill off Sega's superior (to me anyway) Saturn and Dreamcast systems in turn - clearly, what goes around does indeed come around.

What's also clear is that, with combined December sales of the Wii's "Super Mario Galaxy" and "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games" titles being in excess of 2 million units, Mario and Sonic have a very bright future ahead even after all these years (which so far will be 27 years for Mario and 17 years for Sonic as of this year). Marvellous!