The month of September was a big month for Sony. The release of the new PlayStation 3 Slim drove sales past Nintendo and Microsoft’s consoles, outpacing its closest rival by some 30,000 units, according to data released today by the NPD Group. This marks the first time Sony’s console has outsold both its competitors in the U.S.
Sony pushed 491,800 PS3s in the month of September, outselling the Wii and the Xbox 360, which sold 462,800 and 352,600 respectively. PlayStation 3 sales were up by 134% from the previous month. In fact, all consoles saw decent sales increases in September.
“The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month,” said NPD’s Anita Frazier.
For the sixth straight month, the Nintendo DS outsold all consoles, but ultimately fell by 5% with 524,000 units sold. Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner as sales more than double compared to 2008. The month of September proved to offer a “modest increase” from previous years.
“All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August),” Frazier said.
* Nintendo DS – 524,200
* PlayStation 3 – 491,800
* Wii – 462,800
* Xbox 360 – 352,600
* PSP – 190,400
* PlayStation 2 – 146,000