Destiny sales not enough to stop September slump, says analyst

Destiny sold well, but not well enough to challenge GTA 5 and keep September sales from falling off sharply year-over-year, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

Destiny sold an estimated 2.75 million in September, the analyst said in a note to investors ahead of the NPD Group's monthly report.

"That’s well below Grand Theft Auto 5’s roughly 7 million unites last year," he said, as reported by VentureBeat.

“Last September, Take-Two announced worldwide retail sell-through for [GTA V] of over $800 million on day one and over $1 billion for the first three days. Both industry records. This September’s biggest release, Activision Blizzard’s Destiny, had day one sell-in to retailers of over $500 million, a record for a new franchise, with sell-through to consumers of over $325 million in its first five days."

As a result of this, and NBA 2K15's later than usual October release, Pachter expects the NPD Group's September report to show a sharp year-on-year decrease in software sales. He predicted a 42% drop to $435 million.

Pachter did go on to say that Destiny's sales figures are strong, and that its failure to meet GTA 5's performance has more to do with what a juggernaut Grand Theft Auto is than anything else - although Destiny's mixed reviews didn't help, and the Bungie shooter had more new releases to compete with than GTA 5 did.