Author | Lightnews

John Welfare

@johnbp.bsky.social

400 followers 28 following 520 posts

Video game enthusiast, follow sales and provide questionable commentary. Go to https://www.installbaseforum.com/ for dedicated video game sales discussions. My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JohnWelfare

www.installbaseforum.com

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · Jun 17

I went over the massive Switch 2 launch sales and what a likely month 1 result for it is

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YHF...

The Record Breaking Success of Switch 2 Explained

YouTube video by Welfare

www.youtube.com

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 15h

Animal Crossing New Horizons? Recession indicator

Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · 18h

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition & Free Update – Announcement Trailer www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nOD...

"Switch 2 Edition and a free update to the base game launch January 15, 2026. Only on the Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch systems. Pre-orders are coming soon"

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 3d

What a massive disappointment on the campaign.

Multiplayer I messed with Warzone heavy, I really did want a Warzone 2 with major enhancements for Halo Infinite.

Shinobi602 @shinobi602.bsky.social · 3d

🎮 October 27, 2015 🎮

Halo 5: Guardians launched on Xbox One

#Xbox #Halo

John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 3d

He's still bragging about remembering the damn animals 🤣

I remember the first time he spoke about the dementia test and I lost it when he brought up the animals like it was a big accomplishment

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Trump: "They have Jasmine Crockett -- a low IQ person. AOC is low IQ. Have her pass the exams I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. They're cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump. The first couple questions are easy -- a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe ... "

Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 3d

Pokémon Legends: Z-A had a massive US launch at retail.

Launch week physical unit and dollar sales of Pokémon Legends: Z-A were the biggest for a new physical video game launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom back in May of 2023.

Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 4d

I noticed GameStop selling refurbished Xbox Series X and PS5 accessory bundles on their website and giving them Condition: New, while proper refurbs of the solo consoles are listed as Condition: Refurbished, so possible those refurbs are being tracked as new purchases then.

Reposted by John Welfare

Tuba Zef @tubazef.com · 4d

Oh, it's PS2 North America's launch anniversary

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 4d

Maybe better saved for an Xbox or GameCube post, but does Circana still track the refurbished original Xbox and GameCubes as New units? Always weird to see that be case when looking at old data.

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Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 4d

Happy 25th, PS2!

The PS2 sold over 46.5M units in the US, with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas its best-selling game in both units and dollars.

Over 147M accessory units sold for PS2, with the PS2 8 Meg Memory Card moving 28.3M units with a 61% attach rate.

Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

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Reposted by John Welfare

Jason Schreier @jasonschreier.bsky.social · 6d

The kind of thing that happens when you need to get to 30%...

PlayStation @playstation.com · 6d

Master Chief comes to PlayStation.

Halo: Campaign Evolved launches on PS5 next year, rebuilt and modernized with 2-player local co-op and 4-player online co-op: play.st/4oAYnr5

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Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 7d

Never, ever let facts get in the way of believing what you wish were true.

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Reposted by John Welfare

Knoebel @knoebel.bsky.social · 6d

Phil Spencer says Xbox playtime in Japan increased by around 20% in the past year across console, PC and cloud.

"I had to point out one thing, it seems to me that the importance of PC is increasingly growing for our Japanese players."

automaton-media.com/en/news/xbox...

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 7d

Incredible result for both the game and the Switch 2 version. It's nearly half the sales so that would be

~3.0M Switch 1
~2.8M Switch 2

That should mean ~1 in 3 Switch 2 owners bought Pokemon.

Shinobi602 @shinobi602.bsky.social · 7d

Pokemon Legends: Z-A has sold over 5.8 million copies in its first week

➡️ corporate.pokemon.co.jp/PostImages/p...

Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 7d

Here's a fun one I missed yesterday: During September, MLB The Show 25 surpassed MLB The Show 23 to become the 2nd best-selling game in franchise (and the baseball sim genre) history in the US.

It trails (and is unlikely to catch) only MLB The Show 21.

Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

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Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 7d

Pursuing a consistent 30 OI target in gaming sure would explain... all of it.

Back in the day we had a 15 OI target on every new game P&L and even that proved exceptionally challenging.

Man.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 7d

Operating income for the Xbox division went up 34% last quarter so they are probably approaching that target but I doubt they hit that before all the OEM hardware royalties and profitable next gen console is out to further boost profits.

John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 7d

This would mean Xbox had to have an Accountability Margin of $7B in the FY25 period

In FY21 and FY22, Xbox only had an AM of $2.2B

Jason Schreier @jasonschreier.bsky.social · 7d

SCOOP: For the last two years, Microsoft has pushed Xbox to hit profit margins of 30%, an ambitious target that's far higher than the industry average.

This chase for profit has led Xbox to raise prices, cut thousands of jobs, and rethink everything.

Story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Microsoft Pushes Xbox Division to Hit Higher Profit Margins

Management’s goal of 30% profit margins for gaming has led to job losses, canceled projects

www.bloomberg.com

Reposted by John Welfare

Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · 8d

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Joker added to the game today as free DLC

More player stats:
-Raced over 74.5 million times
-Played in over 31.5 million Grands Prix
-Played in over 13 million Ranked Matches

noisypixel.net/persona-5-jo...

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Reposted by John Welfare

Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · 8d

Escape from Duckov has sold 1 million copies within 1 week store.steampowered.com/news/app/316...

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Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 8d

In the US, PS5 has been ahead of PS4 on a time aligned basis for a very long time. As of September (month 59 in market), PS5 is ahead of PS4 by 4.6%.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 8d

Curious on the Xbox increase, I've noticed the X became more available in August/September, so is the increase coming from that, or is S contributing to that as well?

Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 8d

With one week in market, the US sales performance of Ghost of Yotei was basically flat to that of Ghost of Tsushima.

It did great.

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Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 8d

September 2025 US video game data fun fact - The PlayStation 5 has now surpassed the PlayStation 3 in lifetime installed base.

So that's cool.

Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service.

Shout out to Maki on the InstallBase forum for reminding me about this one.

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Reposted by John Welfare

Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 8d

XBS also increased a bit. Switch 2 declined slightly.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 8d

Did any other console see an increase in unit sales vs August?

John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 8d

Can you say anything more on how PS5 performed specifically as this was this month it saw the price hike across all retailers?