NPD November 2019: Switch #1, other details

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Barkley said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:
Call of Duty is #1 my ass! Pokemon takes spots 3, 4, and 5. Meanwhile Call of Duty is two different platforms combined. I know that if they actually reported numbers Pokemon would have crushed Call of Duty. NPD makes some of these third party franchises seem a lot bigger than they really are while downplaying Nintendo first party as much as possible.

Nope, even combined Pokemon is behind CoD. And this isn't even CoD's launch month, it launched in October.

You might not like Call of Duty but it IS a behemoth.

"SKUs would combine to rank #2"

Though Pokemon numbers do not include digital, because Nintendo remains one of the only publishers to not release digital numbers to NPD. Because reasons.

I imagine including digital Pokemon would definitely be above CoD, but again, this is CoD's second month. CoD is a sales juggernaut. Pokemon also didn't have a full month of sales though.

Claiming that NPD is "downplaying" Nintendo is ridiculous though. Are you actually suggesting they are reporting false numbers because of bias?

Yeah I agree Pokemon would be above CoD if digital sales were provided.

I don't think their numbers are "false" so much as "spun".  About 10 years ago they reported software numbers and also Playstation and XBox SKUs were separate on the charts.  Nintendo games dominated the NPD charts.  

However, NPD is a business, and a lot of their customers are Western AAA studios.  Their old charts were pissing off their customers.  So they found a new way to report numbers that don't piss off their customers.  Combine SKUs for Playstation and XBox and don't report software numbers.  Now, all of the sudden AAA third party games move up in the charts.  It might not seem so biased if Pokemon SKUs were also combined.  The fact that they combine Playstation and XBox SKUs and keep Pokemon separate makes it particularly obvious that they are biased.