In a statement designed to highlight its self-appointed status as the “preferred stage” for music-based games “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band,” Microsoft released data showing gamers, on average, buy 3.8 million songs a month, for either game, and have bought more than 45 million tracks for both to date, across all installments of the respective franchises.
Microsoft also said that 2 million copies of the “Rock Band” franchise were sold on the Xbox 360 console, which it says is 1 million more than the any other console combined and represented 50% of the franchise’s total sales. It also revealed that it sold 363,000 copies of the new “Rock Band 2” release since the Sept. 14 launch, an Xbox 360 exclusive until November.
This news comes on the heels of recent NPD Group data that shows sales of console-based games fell 7% in September from the same month last year, the industry’s first decline since March 2006. However, last September saw the release of the massively popular “Halo 3” which somewhat skewed results.
“It’s important to keep in mind that this month’s 7% decline is against a month that itself was up 75% from the prior September,” explained NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. The dip was primarily blamed on the lack of a blockbuster title, many of which are on deck for November in anticipation of the holiday sales season. She singled out “Rock Band 2” as among the most successful games of the year.
