As it is wont to do, Nintendo dominated hardware sales in the United States in March, the Nintendo DS and Wii combining to move more than a million shiny new game machines last month.
Topping the hardware list was the Nintendo DS with 700,800 units sold in March, no doubt thanks to impressive sales of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver for the platform. Nintendo also bested the competition on the console side, the Wii selling more than a half-million units in the U.S. in March.
The battle between Microsoft and Sony was a little closer, with less than 25,000 sales separating the two.
Here are the official numbers from sales tracker NPD.
- Nintendo DS - 700,800
- Wii - 557,500
- Xbox 360 - 338,400
- PlayStation 3 - 313,900
- PSP - 119,900
- PlayStation 2 - 118,300
In dollar sales, that amounts to $440.5 million. That's a drop of 4% from the previous March. NPD calls the Wii the "only hardware platform to increase sales velocity over February" on an average sales-per-week basis.
NPD also has good analysis news for Sony, noting "PS3 hardware posted its eighth consecutive month of year-over-year increases. For the first time since its launch in the U.S., the PS3 has four titles in the Top 10, and was also the leader in console software sales."