NPD: God of War III drives March sales spike for PS3

by Stevie Smith - Apr 16 2010, 13:14

The latest batch of figures released by market researcher NPD Group show that Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) videogame console enjoyed something of a sales spike during the month of March – likely on the back of a certain angry Spartan.

Specifically, the powerhouse PS3 sold 313,900 units in the U.S. in March, which represents a year-on-year increase of 44 percent and the eighth consecutive month Sony’s console has posted forward momentum.

Bolstering that percentage leap, Sony’s first-party exclusive God of War III emerged as the month’s leading software release for the U.S. market, shifting an impressive 1.1 million units.

NPD’s numbers reveal that God of War III was followed closely by Nintendo’s new Pokemon SoulSilver/HeartGold (DS) and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII (PS3/Xbox 360), which sold 1.02 million units and 828,200 units respectively.

Despite Sony’s continuing success in the videogame arena, hardware sales in March were still dominated by its main rivals, with the Nintendo Wii selling 557,500 units, while the Microsoft Xbox 360 managed to find its way into 338,400 homes around the United States.

Sony similarly trails its hardware competitors on the global stage, where Nintendo has so far sold a staggering 67.5 million units of the Wii, and Microsoft has sold 39 million Xbox 360s.

By comparison, Sony has sold 33 million PlayStation 3s – although it should be noted that it lags behind the Xbox 360 by just six million units and was released to market a full year after Microsoft’s console.

The Nintendo DS remains the overall platform leader thanks to sales of 700,800 units in March and a jaw-loosening global tally of well in excess of 125 million unit sales.

Around the Web