Analysis of US sales data released by the NPD Group has revealed that PS3 now has a higher software tie ratio than Wii.

As of March 2009 PS3’s tie ratio - average number of units of software per console owner – was 6.5, ahead of Wii’s 6.2 tie ratio, according to Gamasutra.

The reason PS3’s tie ratio has pulled ahead of Wii’s is likely found in the opposing hardware sales trends exhibited by both consoles.

While US Wii sales rocketed through much of 2008, PS3 sales have fallen five months running on a year-on-year basis. The slowing PS3 hardware market has not stopped existing owners buying an increasing number of games, but roaring Wii sales have not been matched by software sales for the system.

Wii and PS3 both launched in the US in November 2006. At the same point in its lifetime, in its 29th month on the market, the Xbox 360 had a tie ratio of 7.5. The console’s tie ratio now sits at a healthy 8.3.

I'm glad that they went on to explain the role of hardware sales in tie ratios. Now if only they could reach the conclusion that tie ratio is an almost completely useless number.

Good to know.....

Congratz to the PS3.


Not that metacritic is exactly a good thing to go by, but...

Wii has 76 games that scored 75+, and the PS3 has 144.


The fact that there are more games worth getting for the PS3 has at least a little to do with the tie ratio... It takes software to sell software...

good job PS3 and even better job Xbox 360!!!

Well.....to be fair, their is probably a .2 or .3 error possibility, so technically the Wii (could) actually be beating the PS3. Congrats to both though......:)

360 is a beast!

This has been done to death already. As famousringo said this number has very little real meaning and is often biased towards the console that is selling slower. Someone actually produced some spiffy numbers a few weeks ago looking at console ownership weeks and it's relationship to software sales but apologies to this member as i can't remember who it was.

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=69324

Thanks, this is good but not what i was referring to. 

Some member produced their own analysis looking at software sold as a function of how long people have had the system.  Factoring in the fact that people who have had a system for shorter amount of time have had less time to buy games.

Oh yeah this wont last long. Let's see who will have the higher Tie ratio after E3 and during the holidays!