npd-group posts

It's been a little while since we have seen any lists from the NPD Group on retail PC game sales. The organization decided to no longer release their weekly top 10 PC game sales lists to the media but today they did release their top 20 best selling PC games for the month of September in retail stores.

It's not a shock to learn that NCsoft's fantasy MMO Aion was the number one best selling PC game for the month as it was already selling well in pre-orders online. The Collectors Edition made it to number four for the month. EA's The Sims 3 continues to do well in the number two slot while Cryptic Studios' super hero MMO Champions Online made a strong debut at number 3. Blizzard's MMO expansion World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King made it at number four.

One interesting note before we get to the list itself. Phantom EFX has two of their popular casino PC games in the top 20 list but their hardcore PC FPS Darkest of Days, released in September, failed to make the top 20.

1. Aion - NCsoft
2. The Sims 3 - Electronic Arts
3. Champions Online - Cryptic Studios/Atari
4. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
5. Aion Collector's Edition - NCsoft
6. Mumbo Jumbo Assortment - Mumbo Jumbo
7. The Sims 3 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
8. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
9. Real Deal Slots Treasures of the Far East - Phantom EFX
10. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
11. Spore - Electronic Arts
12. Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games
13. StarCraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
14. Zuma's Revenge - Popcap Games
15. World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade - Blizzard
16. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady/Eidos
17. Real Deal Slots Adventure - Phantom EFX
18. Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Seas - Her Interactive
19. Civilization IV: The Compete Edition - Firaxis/2K Games
20. The Sims 2 University Life Collection - Electronic Arts

Now here's an interesting sales item. Raven Software's upcoming first person shooter Wolfenstein ships to stores next week and now one of the game's designers is offering to pay for your copy of the game. Caveat Emptor, however. There's a pretty massive catch . . . and it's called Madden NFL 10

On his Twitter page Raven Software designer Manveer Heir states, "Here's the deal folks: if Wolfenstein outsells Madden 10 in August I will personally pay for your copy (keep your receipt)." He will be using NPD Group's sales numbers for the basis of the contest and only followers of Manveer's Twitter page are eligible (one free copy per follower). This is almost certainly not going to happen but if it does you could get yourself a free $50 game. Pretty nice. As he added in a later update, "I'd be MORE than happy for it to be super expensive for me."

Gallery: Wolfenstein

So just how many PC gamers are there in the US? According to a new survey of gamers by the always busy NPD Group, there's still quite a lot, despite some industry folks who still seem to think that there's not an audience for games. Gamespot reports that the NPD survey states that 67.3 million people in the US see the PC as their primary gaming platform.

Furthermore, the so-called "Avid PC Gamer" market (who play 23 hours a week) totals 17.3 million people in the US. 25.9 million PC gamers play online for 73 percent of their 8 hours of PC game time. However there are still a large number of PC players who don't connent to the Internet to play games. NPD states that 24.1 million US PC gamers spend 82 percent of that time playing offline PC games.

Just how popular has Blizzard's hit MMO World of Warcraft become? We've always known that the game has had millions of subscribers. Now a new analysis of NPD Group sales numbers by Gamasutra reveals that since the game's launch in 2004 it has sold 8.6 million retail copies in the US.

The sales numbers include the original core game, the Collector's Edition, its two expansion packs (The Burning Crusade and Wrath Of The Lich King) and the Battle Chest collection. It's likely that Blizzard has sold millions more retail copies in Europe. Versions of the game continue to sell well in stores; the original game, the Battle Chest collection and Wrath of the Lich King were all in the top 10 best selling PC games in NPD's latest list for June 2009.

The NPD Group may have decided to forgo releasing weekly lists of the top 10 best selling PC games in the US but they are still releasing their regular monthly top 20 lists for the same catagory. Today it was revealed, to no one's surprise, that the debut of Electronic Arts' The Sims 3 was the top selling PC game in retail stores for June in the US.

In fact Gamasutra states that The Sims 3 sold a total of 820,000 copies in June in US retail stores. That made the game the number one best selling game title of the month, console or PC. The Xbox 360 version of Prototype was the number one best selling console game in June but sold just 419,000 copies.

1. The Sims 3 - Electronic Arts
2. The Sims 3 Collector's Edition - Electronic Arts
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
4. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
5. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
6. Spore: Galactic Adventures - Electronic Arts
7. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
8. Spore - Electronic Arts
9. Empire: Total War - The Creative Assembly/Sega
10. StarCraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
11. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Blizzard
12. Reel Deal Slots Adventure - Phantom EFX
13. Civilization IV: Complete Edition - Firaxis Games/2K Games
14. WarCraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard
15. SimCity Box - Electronic Arts
16. Diablo Battle Chest - Blizzard
17. The Sims 2: Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
18. Prototype - Radical Entertainment/Activision
19. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Edition - Bethesda Softworks/2K Games
20. Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Terminal Reality, Atari

The only way the public can get info about sales about PC games in US retail stores is from the folks at the NPD Group and this week the company has revealed that they will no longer be giving out their top 10 PC game sales on a weekly basis.

Shacknews reports that while the NPD Group gave no reason for the change in policy they did state that the company will still provide a monthly sales list for PC game retail sales. That mean we will be putting more of an emphasis on online weekly sales lists such as those offered by Steam and Direct2Drive. However keep in mind that their lists tend to have games that pop up via one time price cuts and as such are not totally accurate over a long time period.

We expected The Sims 3 to be on top of its first week on the NPD Group's weekly top 10 best selling PC games list and we were not dissapointed. Both the regular people sim game from EA and the collector's edition were number one and two, respectively, on the list for sales the week ending June 6.

One other interesting addition; apparently not every owner of Fallout 3 downloaded the first two mini-expansions. The retail release of Operation Anchorage and The Pitt showed up at number 10 on the list.

1. The Sims 3 - Electronic Arts
2. The Sims 3 Collector's Edition - Electronic Arts
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
4. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
5. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
6. Spore - Electronic Arts
7. Real Deal Slots Adventure - Phantom EFX
8. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
9. Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly/Sega
10. Fallout 3 Operation Anchorage & The Pitt - Bethesda Softworks

While we are firmly in June, the NPD Group has gone ahead and set out their top 20 best selling PC games in the US for the month of May. As you can see there's a lot of familar games in the top 20. In fact not one of the games listed was released in May. That will likely change for June with The Sims 3 and possibly other titles.

Blizzard took seven out of the top 20 slots for the May list and three of the top five, including the number one slot for the MMO expansion World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
3. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
4. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
5. Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly/Sega
6. Spore - Electronic Arts
7. Left 4 Dead - Valve
8. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
9. Fallout Trilogy - Interplay
10. StarCraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
11. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard
12. Demigod - Gas Powered Games/Stardock
13. Real Deal Slots Adventure - Phantom EFX
14. The SimCity Box - Electronic Arts
15. Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks
16. Diablo Battle Chest - Blizzard
17. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition - Bethesda Softworks
18. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard
19. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II - Relic/THQ
20. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor - Relic/THQ

The NPD Group's latest list of the top 10 best selling PC games in retail stores is, well, boring with little change from the previous week's list. The list below is for the week that ended on May 30. However we expect the next week to see The Sims 3 on top of the list in its debut week:

1. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
3. Spore - Electronic Arts
4. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
5. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
6. Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly/Sega
7. Reel Deal Slots Adventure - Phantom EFX
8. Civilization IV: The Complete Edition - Firaxis/2K Games
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
10. Left 4 Dead - Valve

Perhaps because of this week's launch of The Sims 3, the people sim's previous entry, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, managed to outpace World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King to sit on top of the NPD Group's latest list of the top 10 best selling retail PC games in the US.

There's little else that's different in this week's list (for the week ending May 23) other than a n ppearance for the casual game Reel Deal Slots Adventure! by Phantom EFX (which was released over a month ago).

1. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
3. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
4. World of WarCraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
5. Spore - Electronic Arts
6. Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly/Sega
7. Fallout Trilogy - Interplay
8. Left 4 Dead - Valve
9. Reel Deal Slots Adventure! - Phantom EFX
10. The Sims 2: Apartment Life - Electronic Arts