NPD: PlayStation 3 outsold by GBA

The latest NPD sales figures show continuing dominance for Nintendo as the GBA outsells Sony's PS3 - but its predecessor, PlayStation 2, is still doing better than Xbox 360.

NPD data for April reveals that at the Nintendo DS is at the top of the pile with 471,000 units sold. The supply-constrained Wii shifted 360,000 units.

Nearer the bottom of the hardware market is Sony's recently released PlayStation 3 which has sold 82,000 units in the past month, while the ageing Game Boy Advance outsold the next-gen console by 2000 units.

However, Sony's PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable continue to perform well in the market, with sales of 194,000 units and 183,000 respectively.

Which means they're both outselling Microsoft's next-gen console - Xbox 360 recorded 174,000 sales in April, while the GameCube also scored 13,000 sales.

Thanks to the impressive performance of the Wii and DS, overall hardware and software sales were up 20 per cent to USD 839 million (EUR 621m), although overall game sales were down 1 per cent to USD 399 million (EUR 295m).

Nintendo also scored the top four best-selling games for April, with Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl for the DS at the top of the charts, selling 1.045 million and 712,000 units respectively.

Super Paper Mario sold 352,000 copies while Wii Play recorded 249,000 sales in April.

Activision's phenomenon Guitar Hero II enjoyed lead sales on the Xbox 360 in April, with 197,000 units sold, while the PlayStation 2 version racked up 142,000 copies, an impressive number considering the game was released on the format in November last year.

Again, Activision's version of Spider-Man 3 lead on Xbox 360, recording 117,000 sales, with the PS2 version shifting 105,000 units.

PlayStation 2 hit God of War II scored 101,000 sales while Sony's MLB '07: The Show sold 79,000 units.

Portable hardware and software sales for the month of April were both up on the previous year, with hardware rising 43 per cent to USD 99 million (EUR 73m) and software up 61 per cent to USD 141.5 million (EUR 104m).

Console hardware was also up due to higher prices to USD 239.4 million (EUR 177m) or 56 per cent, although software sales were down 19 per cent to USD 248.3 million (EUR 183m).

According to the NPD data, hardware sales to date have reached 38.2 million units in the US, with the GameBoy Advance reaching 35.7 million sales.

Sales of the Nintendo DS have reached 10.9 million while the PlayStation Portable has reached 7.4 million units sold to date.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has so far sold 5.4 million units, with the Nintendo Wii at 2.5 million and Sony's PlayStation 3 with 1.3 million sales.

Meanwhile, Canadian NPD figures reveal that similar market tastes also centre around Nintendo with the Wii and DS the most popular hardware, recording sales of 42,100 and 34,900 systems sold, respectively.

Again, Canadian software sales were dominated by Nintendo, with Pokemon Diamond, Pokemon Pearl, Wii Play and Super Paper Mario at the top of the charts.

Overall, the Canadian game industry recorded a leap in sales of 64 per cent to CAD 80.7 million (EUR 54m) in April.