Best-selling games in November based on NPD data

**Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, PC, NDS) 1 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD – 8.4 million units
**Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (360, PS3) 2 UBISOFT
Just Dance 2 (Wii) 3 UBISOFT
Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) 4 ELECTRONIC ARTS
**Fable III (360) 5 MICROSOFT
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) 6 NINTENDO
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3, 360, Wii, PC) 7 ELECTRONIC ARTS
**Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) 8 SONY
NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP,PC) 9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
*Wii Fit Plus (Wii) 10 NINTENDO

Analysis from Anita Frazier…

Overall

“November sales represent the best November on record in terms of new physical retail sales. It bests November 2008 by roughly $30 million, and that time frame was at the height of the music/dance genre sales.”

“All categories were up over last year with the exception of portable hardware and software.”

“The 360 platform accounted for over 40% of total industry sales driven by the successful launch of Microsoft’s Kinect. Xbox 360 accessories accounted for 60% of that categories’ dollar sales this month.”

“Based on typical seasonality trends, new physical retail sales should come in between $18.8B-$19.6B. The higher end of that range would essentially be flat to last year. Gains in November offset a good portion of the year-to-date declines.”

“Remember that this data set represents new physical retail sales only. We have begun to report on sales realized through other channels such as used game sales, digital distribution and mobile apps among others. In the first half of 2010, new physical retail sales at the total industry level accounted for approximately 70% of the total consumer spend against the industry, and while that is likely to change when full year results are tabulated, it gives some context with which to evaluate the portion that new physical retail sales represents.”

Software

“Black Ops debuted as the best-selling game in its launch month (in history) with black ops selling 8.4 million units at retail in the U.S. With only one
month of sales, it has become the 7th best-selling game of all time, life-to-date.”

“Black Ops accounted for 25% of all video game software units sold in the month of November.”

“The Music/Dance genre increased 38% in unit sales over last November fueled by Just Dance 2 and Dance Central.”

“We are now reporting sales at the total platform level instead of the SKU level but if we were reporting the top 10 SKU’s, Halo: Reach would have been #10 this month.”

Hardware

“The Xbox 360 was the best-selling console hardware system for the month, realizing an incredible 68% increase over last November.”

“The best-selling system overall was the Nintendo DS. It was a high/low story for the DS this month with the new red SKU providing the most sales and the white, lower-priced SKU being #2. It appears the DS attracted two pockets of consumers: those looking for a unique limited-edition product and those looking for value.”

“We expect a big jump in sales in November due to seasonality and the influence of holiday, but the change this November over October is bigger across most platforms than it was last November. This could point to the impact of aggressive retail promotions during the critical Black Friday week.”

Accessories

“The Xbox 360 Kinect was the best-selling accessory item in November. With one month of sales, it’s the top-selling accessory item in terms of dollar sales on a year-to-date basis.”

“The Xbox 360 platform contributed five of the top ten accessory items for the month.”