Diablo 3 sold even better than expected, but the success of Blizzard’s latest loot RPG couldn’t stop the downward trend that the entire industry has been facing ever since the year started. Full breakdown after the jump:
As expected, Diablo 3 dominated May. Despite early server troubles and a lot of people who said they were going to boycott the game because of Blizzard’s draconian DRM, it looks like Diablo 3 is going to repeat the success of D2. It’s also the first PC game to take the number one spot on the monthly sales charts since Blizzard’s own Starcraft 2, which was released in 2010. It’s also worth noting that the NPD only tracks sales of boxed, retail copies, so Diablo 3 managed to take the top spot even without counting the assuredly massive amount of people who bought the game digitally via Battle.net.
Rockstar’s Max Payne 3 also sold pretty well, and took second place for the month. Ubisoft’s latest Ghost Recon game, Future Soldier, secured the third spot, while Prototype 2 spent it’s first full month at retail in fourth place. Capcom’s open-world/ Monster Hunter hybrid Dragon’s Dogma managed to take the ninth spot, which is fairly impressive considering it came out near the end of the month. While I hear the game is pretty good, those sales were no doubt bolstered by the fact that it comes packaged with the Resident Evil 6 demo.
- Diablo 3 (PC)
- Max Payne 3 (360, PC, PS3)
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (360, PC, PS3)
- Prototype 2 (360, PS3)
- NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, and… PS2[!])
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PC, PS3, Wii)
- Sniper Elite V2 (360, PS3)
- Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
- Dragon’s Dogma (360, PS3)
- Just Dance 3 (360, PS3, Wii)
In terms of hardware sales, the 360 was once again the best selling console of the month, though every system except for the 3DS actually experienced a decline in sales when compared to last year. Other than the 3DS (which continues to gain in popularity,) I think it’s understandable that most of the other systems are experiencing declining hardware sales — we are nearing the end of this generation, after all — though the Vita’s continued struggle is worrisome. Sony either needs to announce a price drop or secure some exclusives for their new handheld ASAP.
Of course, all of big three console manufacturers have already started to put their PR spin on the sales results for the month. Despite the decline in software sales, Microsoft is quick to brag that 9 of the games in the top 10 are available for 360, and Sony points out that while PS3 exclusive Starhawk and MLB 12: The Show didn’t crack the top 10, both games experienced “strong” sales (though Sony doesn’t offer any data to back up that claim.) Nintendo meanwhile, seems happy to see that the 3DS is maintaining the sudden burst in popularity it got after the system’s massive price drop last fall.
