In its monthly report analyst Arcadia Investment says console sales in November topped 3.2 million units. Next-Gen has exclusive details of the report’s highlights including platform break-downs.
Arcadia says hardware sales increased by at least 50% year on year, with software up about 20%. Retail dollars increased by about 25-30% to about $1.6 billion, compared to $1.3 billion in November 2005.
Xbox 360 unit sales topped a minimum of 500K units in the month, probably more, with 200K in Black Friday week. Retailers attributed the increase to strong sales of Gears of War and “chronic press coverage” of supply constraints on PS3. Microsoft is now on track to sell through about 4.25 million units in the US in calendar 2006 with an installed base of around 5 million units.
As is well known, available quantity of PS3 was probably less than 150K units at launch, with a further 50K creeping into the channel in November. The low tie ratio for PS3 is blamed on eBay resale speculation with some retailers reporting less than 0.5 software units per hardware unit. Arcadia says a 600K total sell through for the year is reasonable.
The analyst bases its numbers on retail surveys, although these are less definitive than NPD’s numbers, due out later this week. It says Wii sold about 500K in unit sales in November with a tie ratio of about two per console. Zelda attached at a 75% or better rate. The report says that Nintendo remains on track to deliver about 1.3 million units to retail shelves by year end in the US.
PS2 sales topped 500K units, driven by the $129 price point and Guitar Hero II. PS2 is on track to hit about 4.7 million units in CY 06, which would bring the US total to about 36.5 million by year end. At this point it's not clear if Xbox 360 beat PS2 for the month.
Among the handhelds, DS unit sales topped 600K units, putting it on track to exceed 4.5 million by year end and 8.3 million cumulative. PSP unit sales approximated 350K units, similar to last year’s. PSP is on track to sell about 2.9 million units during the year, driving the installed base to about 6.5 million units. GBA sold 500K in November, which should bring the year end total to approximately 3.1 million units and the cumulative to 35 million.
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