PS3 leads console sales Down Under in 2011

Following the release of NPD sales data earlier today showing a 12.8 percent drop in overall Australian video game sales for 2011, publishers Sony and Microsoft have each revealed corresponding 2011 sales figures for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms, respectively.

According to Sony, the PlayStation 3 console achieved a 24.85 percent year-on-year increase in unit sales in 2011, selling 1.27 million units at retail and a further 210,000 units in promotions, and achieving the highest unit sales out of all the home consoles in 2011.

Sony also billed the PS3 as delivering "the highest unit and value share in the industry," with the PS3 platform--including hardware, software, and peripheral device sales--reaching 25 percent and 31 percent unit and value share, respectively.

The top-selling title for 2011 in Australia, Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, also sold the greatest number of units on Sony's home console.

Managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia Michael Ephraim said the PS3's percentage year-on-year unit growth was "triple that of our nearest competitor."

Looking at Microsoft, the publisher's Xbox 360 platform--including both hardware and software--was the only platform in the Australian market to show growth in 2011, growing more than 5 percent in the last year. The Xbox 360 was also the top-selling console during the 2011-12 Christmas sales period (with December 2011 being the console's highest-selling month on record), as well as the highest-selling console worldwide in 2011 (according to Microsoft, citing NPD US data).

Microsoft says that the period marks five years of consecutive growth for the Xbox 360 in the Australian market in console-unit and platform-revenue growth--the only console to do so in Australia. Online subscriptions for Xbox Live also grew 40 percent last year.

Although Nintendo Australia will not be officially releasing its 2011 sales data, the publisher told GameSpot AU total 2011 sales for the Nintendo 3DS in Australia sit at more than 255,000 units according to the NPD data (the Nintendo 3DS launched in March 2011), while total 2011 sales for the Wii in Australia sit at more than 300,000 units. According to 2010 NPD sales data, the Wii sold 420,000 units in Australia in 2010, marking a 28.6 percent year-on-year drop in sales for the console.

Total life-to-date sales for the Wii in Australia currently sit at more than 2.4 million units according to NPD data.