The NPD Group has passed along its sales data for the month of October, and the numbers once again reflect a decline. Total sales dipped 4% to $1.07 billion, driven mostly by a 26% drop in hardware to $280 million. Software was actually up 6% to $605 million, while accessories jumped 18% since NPD categorized PlayStation Move as an accessory "specialty controller." With October in the books, year-to-date, the U.S. game industry is now tracking behind 2009's levels by 8%.
"Sales of new physical video game items at retail declined 4% in October, driven by declines in hardware. Console and portable hardware unit sales were both down about 30% versus last October, but an increase in the average retail price for console hardware softened the dollar sales impact a bit. Unit sales for software and accessories was essentially flat to last October but an increase in the average retail price led to an improvement in dollar sales performance for those two categories versus last October," explained industry analyst Anita Frazier.
"Keep in mind that these sales only reflect new physical retail sales," she continued. "While down, there are revenues being generated from digital distribution, used game sales, rentals, social network games and mobile applications to name a few. As we announced in October, we estimate new physical sales across hardware, software, and accessories to account for approximately 70% of the total consumer spend on games."
Under NPD's old reporting methods at the SKU level, Bethesda's Fallout 3: New Vegas on Xbox 360 would be the top seller for October with 697,000 units sold. On a title basis, however, 2K Sports' NBA2K11 takes top honors.
1 Comments
November 18, 2010
I'm glad to see Medal of Honor doing OK, I actually really liked it. Same for Fallout: New Vegas, despite its mixed reviews everyone I know who's actually playing the game is absolutely in love with it.