September NPD: Xbox 360 Sales Spike

Microsoft weren’t going to break the old adage that ‘price cuts cause increased sales,’ proving their tactics correct with a near doubling of US console sales over August, according to the NPD group.

Apart from Nintendo’s Wii continuing to sell through the roof, Sony’s PlayStation 3 also saw a rise on its previous month, closing the Xbox 360′s lead to just over 100k. This month-over-month growth is despite an overall industry decline of 7% over last year; the first decline since March 2006.  Still, September 2007 was the month Halo 3 broke records, accounting for an incredible 35% of 2007′s overall software sales.

Moving from hardware to software, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed shows the power of Lucas’ brand by topping the chart, also supporting our report that Unleashed is the fastest selling Star Wars game of all time.  Wii Fit continues to vault off shelves, and Rock Band 2 shows healthy Xbox 360 numbers, promising much for its multiplatform release later this year.

Software Sales

1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts, Xbox 360) – 610,000
2. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) – 518,000
3. Rock Band 2 (Harmonix, Xbox 360) – 363,000
4. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 353,000
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts, PlayStation 3) – 325,000
6. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Pandemic, Xbox 360) – 297,000
7. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 243,000
8. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon, Xbox 360) – 224,000
9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Krome, Wii) – 223,000
10. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon, PlayStation 2) – 158,000

Hardware Sales (5 week month)

1. Wii – 687,000 units
2. Nintendo DS – 536,800 units
3. Xbox 360 – 347,200 units
4. PSP – 238,100 units
5. PlayStation 3 – 232,400 units
6. PlayStation 2 – 173,500 units

Microsoft should expect continual growth as we enter the holiday season, and at the magical $199 price point it might even be an attractive option during the current economic crisis.

Source: NPD, via NeoGAF