According to research done by Matt Matthews at Gamasutra, the Guitar Hero World Tour full band kit sells surprisingly well, making up 41 percent of the game's units sold from October 2008 to January 2009, based on figures from Michael Pachter at Wedbush Morgan Securities. 35 percent of the units sold are the guitar bundle while 24 percent of the units are the standalone game. Matthews comments on how impressive it is that, despite the harsh economic times and other plastic instruments saturating the market, the band kit still sells the most units during its launch and the following months.
By estimating the game's revenue by type, it's also clear that the band kit pulls in the most money with 61 percent of total revenue in the aforementioned time frame, according to Matthews. But only time (and educated guesses) will tell how future rhythm games will sell in these troubled times.