Nintendo Leads April Hardware Sales

The NPD sales numbers for April are out, and even without a Grand Theft Auto IV push, Nintendo is still killing everything it sees.

Despite coming out at the tail end of the month, Rockstar's hugely successful Grand Theft Auto IV was the top-selling title in April, moving 1.85 million units of the Xbox 360 version of the game. The PlayStation 3 edition came in third for the month, selling one million units despite the system's smaller installed base. Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii managed to pull into second place, with 1.12 million units sold. The latest entry in the GTA franchise drove software sales to $654.7 million units, according to a Next-Gen report, a 68 percent increase over April 2007.

Despite many predictions, however, GTA IV did not significantly impact hardware sales for the month, as both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system sales actually dropped from the previous month. Microsoft sold 188,000 Xbox 360 systems, down from 262,000 in March, while Sony matched its rivals with 187,100 units sold, compared to 257,000 the previous month. NPD analyst Anita Frazier said a greater impact on system sales may be seen in May, due to GTA IV only being available for the final five days of the retail reporting period.

Nintendo, meanwhile, continued its unrelenting domination of the sales charts, moving a punishing 714,200 Wii consoles in April, along with 414,800 DS handhelds. The PSP managed 192,700 unit sales for Sony, while the venerable PlayStation 2 continued to hang tough with 124,400 systems sold.

"This is the first month in many that we've seen a decrease in portable hardware and software sales, but it's important to remember that this year, the Easter holiday fell in March as compared to April in 2007," Frazier said. "April 2007 and March 2008 saw sizable gains in portable in part due to the holiday timing."

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Unfortunately, no. We get our numbers second-hand (I really wish there was something we could do about that) and I've never seen anything beyond the basic list of top-selling hardware and software. I would guess those numbers are available but since you're getting into nitty-gritty retail analysis figures at that level I'd be equally inclined to think you'd have to pay pretty big bucks for them, and that there's a good chance the manufacturers wouldn't clear that information for wide release anyway.

But if I ever come across it, I'll keep you in mind.

May will tell the tale. If Frazier is right, we'll see a significant upswing in 360 and PS3 sales in May; if not, it's serious bad news for Microsoft and/or Sony. By all rights, GTA IV should drive hardware sales; if it doesn't, it could very well mean that the two companies have hit a plateau just as Nintendo is unwinding its supply situation and punching out nearly three-quarters of a million Wiis every month.