First week sales analysis for Madden 08

VG Chartz has posted up the the latest sales numbers which includes the full first week of Madden 08.

Combined with all the platforms it was released on Madden 08 sold approximately 1.8 million copies. That would be drop from last year's 2 million and just about in line with what Madden 06 did. However that decrease in the overall number was expected considering the heavier shift from one console generation to the next.

Because of the higher prices of the games on the 360 and PS3 and the new sales at traditional launch time from the Wii and PS3, those losses are just about offset. According to my calculations, Madden 08 will have accounted for gross sales close to 100 million in the first week compared to 110 million for Madden 07. Continue on to see the numbers for the specific consoles.

360: 889,072 (+263,611)

It is easy to see why EA would concentrate on the 360 version of the game. It has become the dominant console for sports gaming and will pass by the 1 million sales mark by the end of the second week.

PS3: 204,025 (+186,900)

One has to wonder how much the negative press over the frames per second discrepancy affected the balance between the PS3 and 360 sales. It probably didn't make much of a difference. In the case of consumers who own both consoles the clear choice is the 360 version, however those in that group are in the minority. In the case of PS3 owners it wasn't a big enough factor to dissuade them from purchasing the game outright. 

PS2: 546,403 (-601,964)

This is the first year that the PS2 didn't sell the most copies. That is a strong performance though all things considered. There are several more years ahead of EA supporting the PS2.

Wii: 57,247 (+4,956)

The belief that third party games don't sell well on the Wii appears true at least in the case of Madden. With the huge user base that has been built over the past 8 months and launching Madden in August prior to the NFL season as opposed to November along with launch, it only mustered an additional 5,000 sales and couldn't even top the Wii chart.   

Xbox: 56,841 (-227,366) 

Surprising that there are that many who still play on the original Xbox. Looks like it was a good decision to release onto it despite most companies having completely abandoned it. 

In somewhat related news, All-Pro Football 2K8 is essentially dead in the water. It could only muster up 5,695 on the 360 and 2,754 PS3 this last week. My earlier prediction of 200,000 total for APF now seems to be a best case scenario which would include a significant price drop to have any chance to make it happen. For comparison sake, the Gamecube (yes Gamecube) version of Madden sold 4,929. For 2K Sports, The BIGS appears to have been the more successful of their two summer releases.

As expected EA had a wildly successful launch of Madden once again. It is interesting though to look at the breakdown by console and see how things have changed from 07. This year they won't be able to tout breaking overall sales records but come 09 that probably won't hold true.