NPD: Modern Warfare 2 dominates with 6 million sold

Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 broke all first-month sales figures in the US during November by selling 6.07 million console units, according to sales figures released today by The NPD Group.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has achieved the top spot for first-month sales of any game at the title level," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

"Halo 3 previously held the spot when it sold 3.3 million units in September '07 in 12 days at retail. [Modern Warfare 2] bested Halo 3's daily sales rate by 16 per cent in its 19 days at retail in November."

Despite this impressive launch, overall console game software revenue is still down 3.1 per cent from the same period one year ago, at USD 1.406 billion. Year-to-date revenue - that is, combined revenue from January through November - is faring worse, down 10.8 per cent at USD 7.341 billion.

Elsewhere on NPD's chart, New Super Mario Bros. Wii premiered with a strong 1.39 million units sold. Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II sold a combined 1.24 million units across its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions in its debut month, with the majority of sales going to the Xbox 360 SKU at 794,700 units.

Left 4 Dead 2 for the Xbox 360 also debuted in November, selling 744,000 units. It should be noted that the game was not released for the PlayStation 3. Rounding out November's new games, Dragon Age: Origins for the Xbox 360 sold 362,100 units, while the PlayStation 3 version did not chart.

The full top ten list follows.

• 1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, Xbox 360) - 4,200,000
• 2. Call of Cuty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, PlayStation 3) - 1,870,000
• 3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 1,390,000
• 4. Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft, Xbox 360) - 794,700
• 5. Left 4 Dead 2 (EA, Xbox 360) - 744,000
• 6. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii) - 720,200
• 7. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii) - 679,000
• 8. Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft, PlayStation 3) - 448,400
• 9. Dragon Age: Origins (EA, Xbox 360) - 362,100
• 10. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 315,000