EA, Nintendo Titles Rule NPD Top 20 For Another Month

For the second month in a row, Electronic Arts and Nintendo software dominated NPD Group's top 20 software titles, according to a list obtained by Gamasutra. Out of the top 20 software titles for August, which saw software sales decline year-on-year to $470.3 million, Nintendo of America published nine of those games. The best-selling Nintendo game for the month was Wii Sports Resort, which sold 754,000 units, bested only by Madden NFL 10 for Xbox 360, which sold 928,000 units. But previously unreleased information show that in the lower half of the top 20, there were Nintendo games dating back to 2005 and 2006, namely Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Bros. Half of the bottom 10 titles were first-party Nintendo games. Nintendo's newly-released puzzler Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box debuted at number 16 after being on the market for only a few days. Judging by confirmed sales for number 17-ranked Madden NFL 10 for Wii and number 10-ranked Fossil Fighters, we know that the new Layton sold between 67,000 and 92,000 for the month. Electronic Arts captured seven of the top 20 slots, with games including Madden NFL, NCAA Football 10, and EA Sports Active. NCAA Football 10 for Xbox 360 fell from number two last month to number three, while EA Sports Active fell from number 10 to number 19. Aside from EA and Nintendo, filling out the rest of the list were Square Enix-owned Eidos' Batman: Arkham Asylum, which sold 303,000 on Xbox 360 and 290,000 on PS3, and the Activision Blizzard game Wolfenstein for Xbox 360, which made its debut at number 18. Square Enix's Dissidia: Final Fantasy for PSP made the top 10 with 130,000 sold. The full Top 20 for August 2009 is as follows, as provided by NPD Group:

TOP 20 VIDEO GAME TITLES
RANKED BY TOTAL U.S. UNITS
AUGUST, 2009
LAST					RELEASE
MONTH	RANK	TITLE	PLATFORM	PUBLISHER	DATE
**	1	MADDEN NFL 10	360	ELECTRONIC ARTS	Aug-09
1	2	WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS	WII	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	Jul-09
**	3	MADDEN NFL 10	PS3	ELECTRONIC ARTS	Aug-09
**	4	BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM*	360	SQUARE ENIX INC	Aug-09
**	5	BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM*	PS3	SQUARE ENIX INC	Aug-09
**	6	MADDEN NFL 10	PS2	ELECTRONIC ARTS	Aug-09
**	7	DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY	PSP	SQUARE ENIX INC	Aug-09
4	8	WII FIT*	WII	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	May-08
5	9	MARIO KART W/WHEEL	WII	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	Apr-08
**	10	FOSSIL FIGHTERS	NDS	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	Aug-09
6	11	MARIO KART DS	NDS	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	Nov-05
9	12	NEW SUPER MARIO BROS	NDS	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	May-06
12	13	WII PLAY W/ REMOTE	WII	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	Feb-07
8	14	POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION	NDS	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	Mar-09
2	15	NCAA FOOTBALL 10	360	ELECTRONIC ARTS	Jul-09
**	16	PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE DIABOLICAL BOX	NDS	NINTENDO OF AMERICA	Aug-09
**	17	MADDEN NFL 10	WII	ELECTRONIC ARTS	Aug-09
**	18	WOLFENSTEIN	360	ACTIVISION BLIZZARD	Aug-09
10	19	EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE	WII	ELECTRONIC ARTS	May-09
11	20	TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10*	WII	ELECTRONIC ARTS	Jun-09
		*Includes Collector's, Limited, Legendary, Bundles (Guitars) Editions
		** Not in Top 20 last month