NPD has released its May retail sales data, and Xbox 360 continues to lead the current generation of gaming consoles.  Highlights include:

“Grand Theft Auto IV” continues blistering pace on Xbox 360 platform, beating the other platform version by 2:1

• With 871,000 total unit sales in May, “Grand Theft Auto IV” on Xbox 360 outsold the other platform’s version 2:1. (May NPD data)

Xbox 360 generates more dollars at retail for third party publishers

• With $110 million in third party game sales in May, Xbox 360 continues to move more third party games than any other console.  Lifetime-to-date Xbox 360 has generated $3.9 billion dollars at retail for third party publishers, or 59% of the total in this generation. (May NPD data)

• 21 of the 25 top selling third party franchise titles with releases this generation, like “Grand Theft Auto IV,” sell best on Xbox 360. Eighteen of those franchises were previous best-sellers, and two were exclusives, on the PlayStation 2. (May NPD data)

• Only Xbox 360 is providing an improved software attach rate for third party games generation-over-generation.  Xbox 360 continues to lead the industry with a record-breaking software attach rate of 7.7. (May NPD data)

Xbox 360 games outsell, outplay the competition

• Xbox 360 games rank higher than the competition with 12 games with a Metacritic score of 90 or higher, more than PS3 and Wii combined.

• Top-ranking games helped drive sales of 187,000 consoles in May contributing a global install base of more than 19 million. (May NPD data and Microsoft internal data)

• Game sales contributed to $214 million in total consumer spending on the Xbox 360 platform in May. Lifetime-to-date spending on Xbox 360 tops $9.9 billion, or 51% of share. (May NPD data)

Among 10-26 year olds, Xbox 360 gets more playing time than the Wii and PS3

• As reported in Nielsen’s Consumer Insight newsletter, a summary of Nielsen Games GamePlay Metrics service (which electronically tracks console usage) from April 2007 to February 2008 shows that among 10-26 year olds, Xbox 360 gets on average over twice the game play as the Wii with younger gamers, likely due to a record software attach and a blockbuster games library.  The Xbox 360 gets roughly 75 hours of use per month.  Wii users spent just 35 hours per month gaming during the same time period.

• Xbox 360 gamers in this age range also play more than their counterparts on PS3, who spend about 53 hours per month gaming.

Xbox 360: E3 bound

• Last month we showcased an all-star lineup of games including “Gears of War 2,” “Fable 2,” “Banjo and Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts,” “Viva Piñata 2,” and “Too Human.”  We still have quite a few aces left up our sleeve; see you at E3 next month!