The February NPD numbers have been released, so as usual every gaming website is talking about just what they actually mean. I would like to thank Snackbar Games for giving me the opportunity to write my analysis for them.

First, it’s worth considering what these numbers actually represent. NPD uses a retail calendar instead of the traditional one, which means that the “month” of February is actually the four-week period that began on Sunday, February 3rd and ended Saturday, March 1st. Also, since four of the twelve months are five weeks instead of four, it’s useful to look at weekly averages and not just total sales. This makes it easier to compare months without being misled by the differing lengths.

Also, for comparison purposes, it’s worth reviewing both the January 2008 (last month) and February 2007 (last year) results in order to see any changes in market position or trends which may be appearing. The January 2008 numbers were as follows, starting with the best-selling system and working down, with monthly numbers stated first followed by the weekly averages in parenthesis:

Wii: 274,000 (68,500)
PS3: 269,000 (67,250)
PS2: 264,000 (66,000)
DS: 251,000 (62,750)
360: 230,000 (57,500)
PSP 230,000 (57,500)

For February 2007, using the same formatting and removing the GameBoy Advance, GameCube, and Xbox (which are no longer tracked), the numbers were:

DS: 485,149 (121, 287)
Wii: 335,324 (83,831)
PS2: 295,102 (73,776)
360: 228,225 (57,056)
PSP: 175,651 (43,913)
PS3: 127,321 (31,830)

So with that preliminary information covered, we can now look at the February numbers in their full context. So let’s get started. The first thing I’ll point out is that all six consoles showed both a month-over-month and year-over-year sales increase, although some were greater than others. Again IA