NPD: Video game sales continue to fall in June

By Mike Flacy Published July 14, 2011

According to the latest report from the NPD Group, total software, hardware and accessory sales within the video game industry fell by 10 percent comparing June 2011 to June 2010. Sales of software and hardware amounted to $1.03 billion compared to the $1.15 billion generated last year. Console software sales were the main culprit dropping by 12 percent while hardware slipped by 9 percent. However, the slide from last year isn’t as poor as May 2011. In May, the industry took in $743.1 million which accounted for the worst month in the last five years. NPD has fallen under criticism as of late due to an inability to track digital sales. Digital sales were last estimated to account for 40 percent of industry sales.

The top three console games in June were Rockstar’s L.A. Noire, the critically disliked Duke Nukem Forever from Take Two and inFAMOUS 2 from Sony. The remaining top 10 included Disney’s LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS, Call of Duty Black Ops from Activision Blizzard, Take Two’s NBA 2K11, Warner Brothers Mortal Kombat, Disney’s Cars 2 and Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2.

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Despite the unrest with Team Bondi and Rockstar, this is the second month that L.A. Noire has taken the top ranking. However, the game isn’t selling as well as last year’s release from Rockstar, Red Dead Redemption. No games that were released in June 2011 made it on the top ten list; releases such as THQ’s Red Faction Armageddon and Activision Blizzard’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Microsoft released hardware sales numbers for June claiming that 507,000 Xbox 360 consoles were sold. This amounts to a 39 percent increase over June 2010. While Sony didn’t release sales data for June, industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush estimates that Sony sold 175,000 PlayStation 3 units. Nintendo claims to have sold 273,000 Wii consoles, 386,000 Nintendo DS handhelds and 143,000 3DS handhelds. These latest numbers push the Nintendo Wii to over 36 million units sold.

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