Author: by Staff, Matt Matthews

According to NPD data provided to Gamasutra, Rockstar's GTA: Chinatown Wars for DS sold 74,000 in its second month on sales in the U.S., not much less than its debut that disappointed analysts in March. Extending data provided as part of our in-depth NPD analysis, the company revealed that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which landed at Number 18 on the all-formats Top 20 for the month, sold only slightly less than its first month of 89,000. As Gamasutra commentator Matt Matthews notes of the Rockstar Leeds-developed title, a DS debut for the popular GTA franchise: "With the additional April sales, life-to-date [U.S.] sales for the title have reached 163,000." At one point, industry analysts like EEDAR's Jesse Divnich considered that 200,000 units in first-month sales might be poor, a figure the game has still not reached. Nonetheless, robust second-month sales may indicate that a different, steadier-selling sell-through model for Nintendo's Wii, given a more casual clientele less likely to be informed about the precise date of new game releases. However, Gamasutra's Matthews does caution that "sales of the game may have been bolstered when Best Buy discounted the game from $35 to $20 temporarily in April."