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Forums - Gaming - Is Vgchartz sales numbers reliable ?

LurkerJ on 23 November 2013

Nope. It's only getting worse, unless they find a way to track digital sales. Not gonna happen.



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anonymunchy on 23 November 2013

Well, the Wii U software sales are off by 10 million so I'd say it has become increasingly less reliable, for software anyway.



Turkish on 23 November 2013

Yes and No.

Yes because they always adjust their numbers when official numbers are out.

No because
1. a lot of games have fucked up numbers, one example being GoW3.
2. they reported Aliens CM Wii U numbers when that game was cancelled lol. Also NBA Live 14 PS4 numbers when that game wasnt out yet.
3. older gen games and games wiith no official numbers that could give them a hint on how much it sold, are never reliable



weaveworld on 23 November 2013

Should be taken with a grain of salt.

Still fun to discuss them though obviously.



Sleepyprince on 23 November 2013

Wouln't it be more simple to ask (force by law ?) the worldwide retailers to list the number of games and console they sell ?



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Carl on 23 November 2013
Boutros said:

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.

http://www.vgchartz.com/methodology.php


Yep. This is part of what I was going to post.

I was also going to post this - http://www.vgchartz.com/article/82746/editorial-why-it-is-so-easy-to-blame-vgchartz/ - Got a lot of information about the methodology.

VGChartz said:

"What VGChartz offers is timely data that isn't meant to be 100% accurate but be in the right range. We don't compete with the likes of NPD, GFK or ChartTrack; we offer a service that is totally different. One that is not based on comprehensive and direct retail tracking, but rather uses modern and alternative methods to quickly arrive at estimates, combined with a database of historical sales - constantly adjusted and tweaked to be as accurate as possible. " 

Basically, VGChartz is the best youre gonna get for regularly updated worldwide numbers... For free. The numbers arent the most accurate numbers in the world, but they give us a great idea of how things are actually going.

I also like this bit -

VGChartz said:

However, even with the greatest of diligence, our data is still just an estimate so whenever quoting a figure from VGChartz it should be listed as an estimate and readers should be made aware that there is a margin of error associated. With this in mind, VGChartz data is fine for most applications - from a year-on-year genre analysis to first-day estimates for a major title to a ballpark estimate of total sales to date for a given game. It just requires the user to have a little common sense and realise that an estimate is not exact but better than having no information and intended to point you in the right direction.

Dont take VGChartz as gospel, treat the numbers for what they are - Estimations.

Sleepyprince said:
Wouln't it be more simple to ask (force by law ?) the worldwide retailers to list the number of games and console they sell ? 

Good luck with that.



                            

oldschoolfool on 23 November 2013

they do a good job. You can't be %100 accurate. It's all a estimation game and a complicated process.



mariofankev on 23 November 2013

Pretty reliable as long as the numbers are not too early
Just wait for adjustments and there decently reliable



WebmasterX on 23 November 2013

I, after the dizziness of numbers of Xbox360 and Ps3 of last months. I believe that something happens with this web. I follow this web from the first day, but already I do not believe the numbers in favour of other brands. It is something obvious that the accounts are not completely well

Already they are not reliable completely



existenz2 on 23 November 2013

figures over a year old are accurate, less than a year are ballbark