Black Friday 2010 assessments are in. Quantitatively, the data shows Black Friday hit new levels of popularity in 2010. Qualitatively, we noticed both retailers and the press put much greater emphasis on Black Friday, casting a larger shadow non-Black Friday holiday sales then we’d seen before.

Reports from a variety of sources confirm that 2010 was a record year for Black Friday shopping activity. The data below is understated since analysts failed to recognize that Black Friday’s activity takes place outside Friday (this year stores like Toys R Us opened up their Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving day plus many retailers make the Black Friday sale a 3-day sale that extends into Sunday).

Roundup of 2010 Black Friday Data

• The Census Bureau reported a 7.7% increase in retail activity in Nov. 2010 over Nov. 2009
• Paypal reported a 27% increase in total payment volume on Black Friday 2010 vs. 2009 and a 310% increase in mobile shopping.
• First Data Corp reported a 12% increase in same-store dollar volume over the previous Black Friday and 10% increase in transactions. More specifically, General merchandise stores saw 13% growth and clothing stores saw 11% growth.
• The National Retail Federation reported that 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million in 2009 (8.7% more shoppers). They estimate US Black Friday shoppers spent over $45 billion Black Friday weekend.
• Stock Market Analysts predicted a 0.2% increase over October in total retail sales but instead saw 0.8% increase in November, which lead to the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all to rise.
• Coremetrics saw a 16% revenue spike for online merchants, not including the 33% spike on Thanksgiving Day (many Black Friday sales started the evening of Thanksgiving day in 2010). The average order was also 12% higher then the previous year.
• Comscore reported a 9% increase in online sales on Black Friday over the previous year.
• MyBuy saw 16% gains in online revenue for retailers on Black Friday.
• Black Friday was the #1 retail sales day of the year for the sixth straight year accordign to ShopperTrak.

2010 Black Friday Gaming Industry Data

The gaming industry saw an 8% increase year-over-year (estimated $2.76 billion in sales). $1 billion was hardware with the Xbox accounting for 60% of the sales. One of the things our shoppers predicted was that the Kinect would be a big deal. Many doubted Microsoft’s bullish estimates, but it turns out the Xbox Kinect sold over 2.5 million units. They also saw an increase in Xbox purchases during Black Friday (68% increase over 2009).

As for individual games, Cal of Duty: Black Ops was clearly the winner as it became the best selling game in history (for its launch month) after selling 8.4 million units. Here are the top 5 games sold during Black Friday:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC)
2. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Xbox, PS3)
3. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
4. Madden NFL 11 (Xbox, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)
5. Fable III (Xbox)

We can confirm the success of Black Friday in 2010 as we saw massive growth over 2009 in terms of our site traffic. Can’t wait to see what 2011 has in store.