BioShock Infinite, Xbox 360 lead US sales in March

By Tom Ivan
published

Microsoft’s console chalks up yet another hardware victory

BioShock Infinite and Xbox 360 topped US software and hardware retail sales in March, according to data from the NPD Group. Irrational’s game charted ahead of a host of fresh releases including new Tomb Raider, Gears of War and God of War titles, while Microsoft’s console recorded the highest North American hardware unit sales for the 20th consecutive month.

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz said in a research note that BioShock Infinite shifted 878,000 copies on consoles during the month, while NPD said second placed Tomb Raider enjoyed the highest first month sales of any game in the series. Creutz also said both Gears of War: Judgment and God of War: Ascension, which debuted at No.3 and No.4 respectively, outperformed his previous guidance by a "few 100,000" units but "still significantly underperformed prior franchise iterations".

The next highest charting new release was Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. Nintendo said the 3DS game sold almost 365,000 physical copies in the US in March, having been released simultaneously on the eShop. The software chart top ten can be viewed below.

Xbox 360 moved 261,000 units in March to lead US hardware sales for the 20th straight month. It was also the 27th consecutive month Microsoft’s console has outsold PS3 and Wii. Sony and Nintendo didn’t release monthly hardware sales figures, but NPD said that 3DS adoption grew by nine per cent over March 2012. Earlier this week, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime also told GamesIndustry International that 3DS sales hit eight million units in the US in the system’s first two years of availability, compared to seven million DS sales at the same point in its lifecycle.

March software chart:

  1. BioShock Infinite (Take Two)
  2. Tomb Raider (Square Enix)
  3. Gears of War Judgment (Microsoft)
  4. God of War: Ascension (Sony)
  5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Activision)
  6. Luigi's Mansion 2 (Nintendo)
  7. MLB 13: The Show (Sony)
  8. NBA 2K13 (Take Two)
  9. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (Activision)
  10. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (Namco Bandai)
Tom Ivan