April NPD's: Lesson One

The NDP Group's report on April sales for gaming were released yesterday. Interestingly, GTA IV was at the top for the 360 -- and came in at third for PS3. While everyone has been over and over how the game sold zillions of copies in its first 24 hours on April 29, it's interesting to look at its sales in April compared to the other big release of the month (Mario Kart Wii, anyone?) It blew Mario Kart and every other April release out of the water, in just one day, as predicted.

Here's the breakdown of April's sales:

Games:

1. 360 GTA IV: 1,850,000
2. Wii Mario Kart w/ wheel: 1,120,000
3. PS3 GTA IV: 1,000,000
4. Wii Play: 360,000
5. Wii Super Smash Bros. Brawl: 326,000
6. PS3 Gran Turismo 5: Prologue: 224,000
   
7. DS Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness: 202,000
8. DS Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time: 202,000
9. Wii Guitar Hero III: 152,000
10. 360 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: 141,000

Systems:

1. Wii: 714,200
2. Nintendo DS: 414,800
3. PSP: 192,700
   
4. Xbox 360: 188,000
5. PlayStation 3: 187,100
6. PlayStation 2: 124,400
   

There's a whole lot more to be analyzed in these prophetic numbers, so stay tuned. But here's one more number: In April, the videogame industry had $1.23 billion in sales. $1.23 billion.

$1.23 billion (000,000,000).

Thanks to Game|Life.