The adventures of Niko Bellic fought off two strong Wii competitors to hold onto the number one spot on May's best selling software chart, with over 1.3 million copies sold total. The Xbox 360 flavor outsold its PS3 peer by about two-to-one last month, the only game for both platforms to appear in the top ten. Wii Fit, unsurprisingly, had a strong debut, placing third behind GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii and pulling in some $62 million in sales for the month of May.
The list is full of familiar hits like Wii Play and Guitar Hero III, with some of May's more hyped new releases, like Boom Blox and Haze, failing to crack the top ten.
01. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) - 871,300
02. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 787,400
03. Wii Fit (Wii) - 687,700
04. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 442,900
05. Wii Play (Wii) - 294,600
06. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 171,100
07. Iron Man (PS2) - 130,600
08. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 116,800
09. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 107,000
10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 102,000
Total video game software spending was $536.9 million, up 41% year over year.
Comments from NPD analyst Anita Frazier reveal that the other game to take advantage of the Wii Fit balance board, We Ski, landed at number 12. She also points out that GTA IV has racked up 4.2 million in sales in the States and has a score update on the rhythm game genre.
"A lot of folks are interested in the battle of the bands," Frazier added. "Year-to-date, Guitar Hero III has sold 2.5 million units compared to Rock Band's 1.3 million which lands them both in the top 10 titles for the year so far."
Thanks one more time to the folks at NPD for the info.