Vgchartz sales numbers? What do they mean?

[MelR2000]

Looking at Madden sales one week from launch vgchartz shows approximately 145,061 units preordered. I know that doesn't include digital sales. But, looking back at Madden 17 one week from launch, vgchartz reported 425,841 units preordered. Digital copies not reported either of course. Interesting....

[videogamelover]

the lower numbers were probably from Amazon holding their Madden 18 preorders back until week before release date

[bigboyc]

Quote: Originally Posted by MelR2000

Looking at Madden sales one week from launch vgchartz shows approximately 145,061 units preordered. I know that doesn't include digital sales. But, looking back at Madden 17 one week from launch, vgchartz reported 425,841 units preordered. Digital copies not reported either of course. Interesting....

Vgchartz is guessing. Madden sells 2 million copies minimum within its first week. They don't have accurate numbers now because there numbers come from retail (big box stores) and not places like Amazon or Digital.

[Rebel10]

VGChartz is notoriously unreliable. The website guesses using really basic data to extrapolate out regional and global sales. Nearly all of the data on this website is made up based on only really generalized information. It can't account for digital sales, can't account for most retailers (because most retailers do not share that information with any external groups), and makes up statistics based on estimates that not even individual publishers really know.

In short, VGChartz is notoriously bogus. Their sources and methods are apparently "proprietary" (they actually misspell the word proprietary on their site...). The NPD Group is a reliable source of data for the videogame industry, but even NDP (an actual consumer market analysis service) has incomplete data.

That said, I'd be surprised if Madden '18 outsold Madden '17. NFL numbers are in a slump this year, videogame numbers have not been strong in general this year, and Madden '18 had far less hype compared to '17 and '16.

Life lesson: Don't trust anything that has a Z instead of an S at the end of the name.

[MelR2000]

Comparing sales of Madden 18 to Madden 17 at launch using vgchartz shows a drop in sales of 310,000 units. People say this means nothing, I think it is very telling that Madden 18 is flopping. I think between "story mode" and all about MUT MUT MUT that the the EA team has finally ignored the core audience (CFM) enough it is affecting sales!!

[SmashMan]

Quote: Originally Posted by MelR2000

Comparing sales of Madden 18 to Madden 17 at launch using vgchartz shows a drop in sales of 310,000 units. People say this means nothing, I think it is very telling that Madden 18 is flopping. I think between "story mode" and all about MUT MUT MUT that the the EA team has finally ignored the core audience (CFM) enough it is affecting sales!!

As others said, VGChartz are not reliable. Please stop clinging to them as an accurate measure of sales.

[CM Hooe]

As others have indicated repeatedly, VGChartz is irrelevant because the site can't and doesn't track digital sales, be it full game purchases or micro transactions. It will be fairly obvious that Madden NFL is doing just fine when NPD Group releases their Top 10 selling games of the year and Madden is top 5 domestic once again, as it has been for the past umpteen years.

I further still have no idea why any reasonable Madden fan who enjoys playing the game should care about how the game sells in the first place.

[T4VERTS]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

I further still have no idea why any reasonable Madden fan who enjoys playing the game should care about how the game sells in the first place.

Confirmation bias one way or the other depending on the point they are trying to make.