Resident Evil 5 Dominates March Software Sales

Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 outsold every other video game in March, according to software and hardware sales data for the month from NPD Group. Resident Evil 5 on the Xbox 360 managed to move 938,00 units, while its PS3 counterpart did a respectable 585, 000 units. Pokémon Platinum Edition managed to move 805,000 units in March, followed by Halo Wars for Xbox 360 with 639,000 units, Wii fit with 541,000, MLB 09 with 305,000, Killzone 2 with 296,000, and Wii Play with 281,000.

1. Resident Evil 5 - Xbox 360
2. Pokémon Platinum Edition - DS
3. Halo Wars - Xbox 360
4. Resident Evil 5 - Xbox 360
5. Wii Fit - Wii
6. MLB 09: The Show - PS3
7. Killzone 2 - PS3
8. Wii Play - Wii
9. Mario Kart Wii - Wii
10. MLB 2K9 - Xbox 360

NPD group noted that video games sales for March were down by about 17 percent from the same  period last year.

March Hardware Sales Weak

While the Wii continued to sell well in North America during the month of March, it was the Xbox 360 that was up from March 2008 numbers, according to NPD Group. The Wii sold 601,000 units in March followed by the DS (563K), Xbox 360 (330K), PS3 (218K), PSP (168K), and PS2 (112K). The numbers aren’t all that shocking considering when East fell this year and take into account that the Wii had Mario Kart Wii driving sales in the same period last year. In general the entire business was down in march - from hardware to software and all stops in between.

1. Wii 601K
2. Nintendo DS 563K
3. Xbox 360 330K
4. PlayStation 3 218K
5. PSP 168K
6. PlayStation 2 112K

Video game hardware sales were $552.04 Million USD - down by 18 percent, while accessories sales were $217.55 million down by about 15 percent.

While it would be easy for some watching the game space to be concerned about this, NPD Group says that this is do more to timing, availability of killer software and other factors than it is about the economy or consumer spending. It will be interesting to see how these numbers compare to April.