Latest US Console Sales Charts – March

The US console sales chart for March have proven surprisingly even handed for all the major consoles, with the Xbox perhaps doing the best of all, claiming the number one spot with Ninja Gaiden, as well as two lower positions in the top ten. Surprisingly there are only two PlayStation 2 exclusives in top ten, after a quiet month for Sony, with both Final Fantasy XI and Resident Evil: Outbreak’s performance truncated by their release right at the end of the month. However, if PlayStation 2 and Xbox sales had been combined, Electronic Arts’ MVP Baseball 2004 would actually have topped the chart, with the company instead settling for third and fifth place, respectively. Hardware sales for the home consoles have also proven to be closer than usual, with the GameCube selling 163,028 units, the Xbox 198,445 and the PlayStation 2 294,437. All three formats though have been dwarfed by Game Boy Advance sales which hit an astonishing 496,614 – almost twice that of the PlayStation 2. It will be interesting to see next month whether Microsoft’s claim that Xbox sales doubled, in the wake of the April 8th price cut, are accurate as such an increase could put it above the PlayStation 2 for the first time.

The NPD Group/NPD Funworld