The games industry has looked to NPD game sales data for their reports and analysis, but we could never put too much stock into the numbers as they did not include the data from the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. That changed later last year when Walmart said that they would publish some sales data. Today NPD confirms that they’ve reached an agreement with the retailer to receive point-of-sale info for both their stores and website.
According to IndustryGamers, NPD and Walmart are working together under this new agreement to monitor game sales as well as sales of other industries we don’t care about. NPD calls this agreement a game changer for the industry. I’m just glad that their data will now finally show accurate game sales information.