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kitler53 on 16 May 2014
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vivster said:
kitler53 said:
vivster said:
ImmortalHelixFossil said:
vivster said:
Still. That margin of error makes me doubt NPD a little. I just don't see why PS4 would dominate THAT much in April without any major releases.


That's the point. Billion dollar company's trust NPD group. What's VGChartz? You get freaking banned on other game sites (almost all of them) if you even mention this sites numbers. They will call the numbers "bullsh*t". People will laugh at you for even believing those numbers, I really like this community and that's why I daily visit this site, but I have to admit, I never really trust the numbers. Only we (this community) believes or at least enjoys the numbers and this site. The majority of the gamining sites think's otherwise, and I can't blame them.

I have doubt not because NPD contradicts VGC but my expectations. I didn't expect X1 to do that horribly in comparison to PS4. I would've believed it if the kinectless X1 was already announced but these numbers are just really surprising. After all this is Xbox country.


that's the exactly problem with vgcz's numbers.   they don't get any "real" data like npd does.  they conduct polls and rely on "historical trends".   usa is no longer "xbox country" any more how last gen being "playstation country" despite it's prior gen dominance.  people just need to forget the idea that xbox is super popular in the usa,.. the usa has no brand alligence.

To say that there is no brand allegiance is just as ignorant as calling US Xbox country.

As of my understanding VGC uses the same methodology NPD does, just with a lot less data points, which makes extrapolating the numbers a gamble. I dare say NPD doesn't even track half of the actual sales numbers and is extrapolating and trend checking as well.

It might be the most acurate numbers we have but they're definitely not absolute numbers and subject to errors. It's sad that there aren't multiple sales trackers. If we had, opinion about NPD might change when the rival tracker shows slightly different numbers. And yes I know that the companies are using NPD but it's not like they have a choice.


no they don't.  it's very very different:

VGChartz Methodology

Data-Collection Methodology

All sales estimates on VGChartz are arrived at via a number of proprietrary and ever-developing methods:

  • Passively polling end users to find out what games they are currently purchasing and playing
  • Polling retail partners to find out what games and hardware they are selling
  • Using statistical trend fitting and historical data for similar games
  • Studying resell prices to determine consumer demand and inventory levels
  • Consulting with publishers and manufacturers to find out how many units they are introducing into the channel

All data is regularly checked against manufacturer shipments and data released publicly from other tracking firms to ensure accuracy. VGChartz holds no responsibility for the use of our data – any business decisions made are made at your own risk.

Regional Definitions

Data is directly estimated in the following countries on a weekly basis for around 5000 SKUs using the methodology outlined above:

  • USA
  • UK
  • Germany
  • France
  • Japan

Collectively, we estimate that total retail game sales in these 5 countries account for around 70% of the Global market. The raw data collected in these five regions are used to produce two extrapolated charts:

  • Europe - UK + Germany + France extrapolated to represent the European Totals
  • Global - USA + Europe + Japan extrapolated to represent the Global Totals

During 2012, VGChartz has plans to produce further direct charts for Canada, Spain, Italy, Latin America, Australia and Asia - each new chart will provide more regional insight along with greater Global accuracy.

More Data / Contact

VGChartz offers a professional data service called VGChartz Pro. If you require any custom analysis, preview data, forecasts or any other bespoke service outside of the scope of what is offered publically on VGChartz, or want to know more about the website then please contact us – contact AT vgchartz.com