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Which video game console is most popular?

December 8, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment

Nintendo Wii console Who makes the best-selling video game machine? It depends on how you spin the numbers.

Based on the U.S. sales figures in this article, Nintendo's new Wii console is outselling Sony's PS3 more than two to one.

The PS3 launched Nov.17 and sold 197,000 units by month's end. This was less than half the sales of the Wii, which launched two days later and sold 476,000 units by November 30.

Microsoft sold 511,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the U.S. in November, but this represents four weeks of sales (compared to less than two weeks of sales for the Wii and PS3).

In fact, the best-selling console in November was Sony's elderly PlayStation 2, which was launched six years ago. U.S. retailers moved more than 600,000 PS2s in November.

So who has the best-selling game console?

Here are the November 2006 numbers, expressed as sales per day:

Wii (Nintendo, 2006)
29,750 sold per day (November 19-30)

PlayStation 2 (Sony, 2000)
22,133 sold per day (November 1-30)

Xbox 360 (Microsoft, 2005)
17,033 sold per day (November 1-30)

PS3 (Sony, 2006)
14,071 sold per day (November 17-30)

As you can see, the numbers can be used to "prove" that the Xbox 360 outsold both the Wii and the PS3 in November, or that Sony's total PlayStation sales were higher than Xbox or Wii sales, or that the Wii was the world's best-selling game machine on Sunday, November 19, 2006.

We could have even more fun if I had numbers for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP sales in November.

It will be interesting and fun to sift through sales figures for November and December, after the first wave of buying frenzy for Wii and PS3 has ended, and once supply issues are no longer a factor.

Recent history suggests that the biggest sellers this holiday season will be the well-established PlayStation 2 console and the Nintendo DS handheld.

Note: This article uses numbers quoted in this Bloomberg article, which uses estimates of U.S. sales for November 2006 provided by NPD Group. In other words, don't make any important investments based on this information.

December 8, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment on this item