Pokémon, Wii Dominate NPDs

Another month on top for Nintendo. Good showings by Spider-Man and Guitar Hero too. Charts inside.

For the second time in as many months the PlayStation 3 has sold less than 100,000 units in the US, the console being resoundingly trounced by the much cheaper Wii.

The PlayStation 3 sold just 81,604 units in May compared to 338,278 for the Wii, according to the latest sales figures from research firm NPD Group via NeoGAF. The Xbox 360 sold 154,932 units.

The overall hardware leader for May was again the DS, which hit 423,150 units for the month. That was no doubt thanks to the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, which sold 331,000 and 238,000 copies, respectively, according to Gamasutra.

This will be tacked onto the more than 5 million copies the games, due in Europe in July, have sold in Japan.

Other games making the Top 10 in May included Spider-Man 3, driven by the release of the movie, and Guitar Hero II, which continues its run of success.

The software and hardware rankings for May are below:

Software

1. Pokémon Diamond (DS) - 331,000
2. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 314,000
3. Spider-Man 3 - (PlayStation 2) - 249,000
4. Pokémon Pearl (DS) - 238,000
5. Wii Play (Wii) - 227,000
6. Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360) - 217,000
7. Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360) - 184,000
8. Spider-Man 3 (Xbox 360) - 140,000
9. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Xbox 360) - 138,000
10. Guitar Hero II - (PS2) - 131,000

Hardware

1. DS - 423,150
2. Wii - 338,278
3. PSP - 221,120
4. PlayStation 2 - 187,765
5. Xbox 360 - 154,932
6. PlayStation 3 - 81,604
7. Game Boy Advance - 80,554
8. GameCube - 10,728

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo