NPD has released its ‘September’ figures for the United States and Canada for the five weeks of September 2, 2007 to October 6, 2007. Vgchartz figures for the same period and for the same region have also been released. It is now time to compare the two sets of data (avg = total/ number of weeks (5) in the period).
| September | VGC Sept | Sept avg | NPD Tot | NPD avg | NPD/VGC |
| Xbox 360 | 520,698 | 104,140 | 579,000 | 115,800 | 1.11 |
| Wii | 496,591 | 99,318 | 543,900 | 108,780 | 1.1 |
| DS | 620,910 | 124,182 | 540,800 | 108,160 | 0.87 |
| PSP | 348,422 | 69,684 | 306,500 | 61,300 | 0.88 |
| PS2 | 290,933 | 58,187 | 231,500 | 46,300 | 0.8 |
| PS3 | 168,393 | 33,679 | 135,000 | 27,000 | 0.80 |
| GBA | 97,145 | 19,429 | 83,600 | 16,720 | 0.86 |
Hardware figures for September were on average 14.4% different between NPD and Vgchartz over the five week reporting period (using absolute value correlation divided by the number of hardware platforms). The differences are quite interesting this month. On a percentage basis PS2 and PS3 had the greatest overestimation by Vgchartz – indicating that these two platforms were likely more impacted by the Halo 3 sales boost than was shown in the Vgchartz data sample. In fact, had this been a four week month, PS3 would have barely sold 100,000 units in the USA and Canada – combined – despite the release of Heavenly Sword and the foot traffic boost at retail from Halo 3. Wii appears nearly unaffected by the increased Xbox 360 sales – posting its second highest NPD figure since December (another 5 week month) of 2006. When compared to other sources, Vgchartz did quite well for the month – as can be seen below (NPD Total = NPD USA + NPD Canada). Hardware data this month was just about spot on in showing the increased PSP sales, strong DS/Wii/360 sales, with Wii being outsold by Xbox 360 by roughly 30,000 units.
| Platform | VGC Sept | Pachter | Sim Exc | NPD USA | NPD Can | NPD Tot |
| DS | 620,910 | 430,000 | 493,000 | 495,800 | 45,000 | 540,800 |
| Wii | 496,591 | 425,000 | 481,000 | 501,000 | 42,900 | 543,900 |
| GBA | 97,145 | 65,000 | 75,000 | 8,600 | 83,600 | |
| Xbox 360 | 520,698 | 450,000 | 400,000 | 527,800 | 51,200 | 579,000 |
| PS3 | 168,393 | 150,000 | 165,000 | 119,400 | 15,600 | 135,000 |
| PSP | 348,422 | 252,000 | 283,000 | 284,500 | 22,000 | 306,500 |
| PS2 | 290,933 | 220,000 | 215,000 | 16,500 | 231,500 |
Lastly, it is important to compare software numbers over the same sales period. Bolded data indicates cases in which NPD and VGC are within 20%.
| NPD Top Ten (USA) | NPD USA | NPD Can | NPD Tot | VGC | |
| 1 | Halo 3 | 3,300,000 | 187,100 | 3,487,100 | 3,196,516 |
| 2 | Wii Play | 282,000 | 25,000 | 307,000 | 264,960 |
| 3 | LOZ: PH | 224,000 | <15,000 | <239,000 | 348,970 |
| 4 | Madden 2008 (PS2) | 205,000 | <15,000 | <220,000 | 227,848 |
| 5 | Skate (360) | 175,000 | <15,000 | <190,000 | 193,880 |
| 6 | Madden 2008 (360) | 173,000 | <15,000 | <188,000 | 238,652 |
| 7 | Metroid Prime 3 | 167,000 | 16,400 | 183,400 | 248,417 |
| 8 | Bioshock | 150,000 | <15,000 | <165,000 | 282,531 |
| 9 | Brain Age 2 | 141,000 | 20,800 | 161,800 | 204,108 |
| 10 | Heavenly Sword | 139,000 | <15,000 | <154,000 | 207,346 |
While hardware data continue to be pretty reliable, software data is improving at a slower rate. Still, four games were within 20% of NPD’s figures, and over half of the games were within 30%, which is far better than what the hardware margins of error were back earlier in 2007. In time, the software data will reach the levels of hardware accuracy, although it is not yet to that point.
