More games have higher penetration levels on Xbox 360, PS3

Another way to look at sales is the penetration level.  In this context, “penetration level” is defined as the percentage of console owners who own a particular game.

By looking at the numbers this way, it is possible to compare sales on a relative basis across the three consoles. It should also be noted that these numbers change each week – both in the numerator (game sales) and denominator (console sales)

According to VGChartz on sales through Dec. 20, 2008 – the Wii has 15 games with at least a 5% penetration level. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 has 46 games with at least a 5% penetration level and the PS3 has 23 games with at least a 5% penetration level.

Comparing this to the million sellers list (Xbox 360 has 61, Wii has 37, PS3 has 22) reveals several things. First, the one-year head start of the Xbox 360 has given it an edge in software sales . Second, the large install base of the Wii makes it easier to sell a million units, but also means over 2 million in sales are needed for a 5 percent penetration level. Third, because there are less than 20 million PS3s, less than one million in sales are needed to get a 5% penetration level.

Taking this down to the 2% level, the numbers are similar. The Wii has 44 games with a penetration level of at least 2%. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 has 115 such games and the PS3 has 88.

 Thus, there have been more relative blockbusters and strong sellers on the Xbox 360 and PS3 – even if they don’t all have the absolute level of sales seen on the Wii.

Interestingly, all three consoles have nine (9) games with at least a 10% penetration level – super blockbusters. But the Wii has four (4) with at least a 25% penetration level, while the Xbox 360 has two (2) and the PS3 has one (1).  The four super-duper blockbusters on the Wii are Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit and MK Wii.  For the Xbox 360, it is Halo 3 and COD4 (GTAIV is within half a percentage point). For the PS3, it is GTAIV.  

Thus, the Wii has more “everyone has” games. Some might say that these are because of packaging and pack-ins. But over 45% of Japanese Wii owners have paid full price for Wii Sports – so it would still be in that category, even if it were sold separately.  And Wii Fit is the most expensive (JPY 8300, USD 90, UKP 70, EURO 90) major seller ever.

One final consideration is that the Wii has far more games released than the other two systems. There are 737 Wii games in the VGChartz database, compared to 517 for the Xbox 360 and 382 for the PS3. Thus, game sales can be more distributed across a greater number of titles.

However, in a relative sense, once you get past the biggest sellers, more games on the Xbox 360 and PS3 have sold to a greater proportion of the install base than on the Wii. Thus, those consoles are doing as much as they can to maximize software sales. And it would be expected that Xbox 360 and PS3 titles would benefit greatly from increased hardware sales.

Mike from Morgantown

cool

THE 360 09 EXLUSIVES WILL HAVE A HARD TIME COMPETING WITH THE 09 PS3 EXCLUSIVES. ALAN WAKE, HALO WARS, HUXLEY, CONVICTION, GTAIV LOST AND DAMNED, VS GT5, GOD3, UNCHARTED 2, KZ2, MAG, FINAL FANTASY, EXT.

683017 - I wonder how many of the listed games are actually going to release worldwide in 2009? Half of the ones you listed for the PS3 may not even come in 09. To be fair, there are a few X360 ones you listed too.

The fact that the Wii has more games doesn't surprise me at all: for every burger king game on the 360 there are ten PS2 ports on the Wii. Ninjabread man ftw.

The best selling system always has the lowest penetration levels for its games, because the biggest userbase is always the most diverse userbase.

The PS2 didn't have a single game with a 25% penetration level.

While all 3 7th gen consoles have 9 games with a 10% penetration level, the PS2 only has 3.

Why should we care about this now?

The PS2 did have a lot of high penetration games, however the PS2 install base is now enormous but the early game sales didn't keep up with the fan base. Several years from now the penetration levels will drop down considerably, not for Wii Sports/Play/Fit though.

penetration levels kick the winners ass, lol. I mean look at PS2, how many games have a 5% penetration level. 5% of 125 million is 6.25 million. Not too many games you will find above that level.

So then every all games that don't even reach 5% of the userbase must be failures right.

I agree with rubangB, penetration levels are even more biased against the highest selling console than attach ratios are