NPD: Xbox 360 sells 1.2 million units in November, Black Ops 2 tops software charts

The NPD figures for the month of November are out, and it looks like the Xbox 360 has swept the floor with all its competition in the month. We don’t have access to full figures yet, but the Xbox 360 sold 1.26 million in November.

The Xbox 360’s was the highest selling system of the month for the 23rd consecutive month. According to Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg on Twitter, it sold more than the Wii and Wii U combined. The Xbox 360, Wii U and PS3 performed very well during the Black Friday weekend too, so we’re guessing that had a great effect on the sales.

Microsoft also reports that US consumers spent $1.2 billion on the Xbox 360, including hardware, software and accessory sales. However, Nintendo DS was the only system that saw a year-on-year increase in sales.

Overall hardware sales are down 13 per cent year-on-year.

Nintendo reports that the Wii U sold 425,000 units and the Wii sold 420,000. 540,000 3DS systems and 370,000 original DS systems were also sold, bringing their lifetime US sales to 6.5 million and 53 million respectively.

The Wii U’s launch title, New Super Mario Bros. U also sold pretty well, selling 243,000 units. Mario Kart 7 surpassed the 2 million mark in its lifetime US sales too.

We will have full hardware sales reports for you soon.

On the software side, overall sales were down 11 per cent. However, the sales of the Top 5 in the software lineup were 5 per cent higher compared to 2011’s November top 5. Half of the money spent on games in November by consumers was on the Xbox 360.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the highest selling game of the month, followed by Halo 4, which, surprisingly, beat Assassin’s Creed 3 to the second spot. AC3 followed Halo 4 in the third spot.

Here are the full top 10:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, PC, Wii U)
Halo 4 (360)
Assassin’s Creed III (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
Just Dance 4 (Wii, 360, Wii U, PS3)
Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, Wii U)
Skylanders Giants (Wii, 360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2012 (PS3, 360, PSV, PC)
NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, Wii U, PC)
WWE ’13 (360, PS3, Wii)
FIFA Soccer 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, 3DS, Wii U, PSP)

“It’s important to compare this month’s results to November 2005, which was the last time the industry began to transition between console generations with the launch of a new platform,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan. “Comparing this month’s results to November 2005, retail video games sales are nearly twice as big as they were then (+97%). This really demonstrates the long-term health of retail sales even as many platforms are quite late in their lifecycles.”

“Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11 percent, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year,” he continued.

On the Wii U’s launch, Callahan said: “The much anticipated launch of the new Wii U console brought in more dollars than the Wii launch in November 2006, up 21 percent from that launch month. With an average price 35 percent higher for the Wii U at launch compared to the Wii, this is an example of how consumers are willing to come out and spend when they see the value of the product. Comparing Wii sales from November 2011 to Wii sales combined with Wii U sales in November 2012, dollar sales increased by 76 percent.”