Any sample size over 30 can be used to make a normal distrubution on a bell curve. We can say with a great level of confidence that the best sellers on Amazon will be in the correct order when they release because the sample size is so large.

Ex. Destiny PS4 #1 Destiny Xbox One #2 ...etc.

There are problems with using Amazon as an indicator for sales. There are Biases such as people with internet tend to order from Amazon and may purchase primarily online games. preorder bonuses for certain games at other stores etc.

I would say Amazon is a good indicator of sales 95% of the time. Just look at Amazon hot sellers vs. The actual sales charts! 9/10 games are in there right place. Is Amazon a good indicator?

itll be interesting to see just how good it is, the ps4 destiny bundle has been ahead of the xb1 since it was announced, so if the rankings hold true, the bundle will sell as many consoles at launch as the xb1 sold june-august.

I dont think itll be that high, but i think they will surprise alot

Ok sure, but that still doesn't make your Xbox prediction for Destiny week more likely (which I assume is the reason for this thread)

I can't imagine why it wouldn't be. If nothing else, it will at least show us where everything charts in relation to each other.

If we look to Japan the Otaku demographic do fiddle around a lot with drawing conclusions about overall sales from the Amazon rankings. They have, for example, this website where you can study sales ranking over time on Amazon:

http://www.rankbank.net/

And this other one, which tries to predict total Anime sales etc from Amazon rankings:

http://www27392u.sakura.ne.jp/

It usually ends up in the right ballpark, but can vary greatly depending on if better offers are found outside Amazon, or from the behavior of the target demographic for a specific product.

Would be interesting to know if similar websites exist in the anglosphere..

So now its ok to use Amazon without clubbing a seal? I mean for months when PS guys were using Amazon to help predict the PS4's NPD win, they were told it wasn't accurate, even though Amazon has been right every month since launch. I'm just glad its ok now.

And what was your Destiny prediction, toastboy?

It's been a very good predictor every month of 2014 of the relative positon of all the consoles in NPD.

It's decent as know as you know about its limitations, and that the hourly top sellers are just that

Amazon.com is decent enough when it comes to sales, but it's not perfect by any means!

Considering how tiny their market share is in comparison to say my own company its ok.