What did 2007's record-breaking sales tell us about the three-way console race? Matt Matthews breaks down last year's NPD numbers to see what it all means in this in-depth analysis...

Note: Today we focus on hardware sales. On Wednesday, Matt Matthews goes in-depth on software, so keep an eye on your RSS.

The videogame industry has literally never had a year like 2007. In the midst of the fiercest three-way console hardware competition, software sales are booming across the spectrum. With a record $18 billion in sales, the industry seems untouched by the economic concerns weighing down the larger American economy, at least for the moment.

The Weekly Sales Rates

With a full year's worth of data, we can now see how the three big consoles fared during all of 2007. The weekly console sales rates for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii are shown below.



(Remember that NPD uses a retail calendar which puts five weeks in December and four in November; using weekly rates, as shown above, eliminates that inequality and makes the data easier to compare.)

Weekly sales of the Xbox 360 grew by 30.9% to 252,000 systems per week, up from 192,500 in November. In November the PlayStation 3 sold 116,500 systems per week, growing to 159,500 systems per week in December, an increase of 36.7%. The Nintendo Wii grew by 10%, increasing from 245,250 to 270,000 systems per week. The only established current generation system last holiday, the Xbox 360, grew by 77% from November 2006 to December 2006.

A comparison of the Holiday 2006 to Holiday 2007 numbers is made difficult because of where Thanksgiving fell this year in the retail calendar. During 2006, the four weeks for November ended with the Saturday immediately after Thanksgiving. However, in 2007 the four weeks for November ended on the first of December, the second Saturday after Thanksgiving, putting seven important holiday shopping days in that month rather than in December. This in part accounts for what appears to be less impressive month-on-month growth in hardware sales.