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U.S. video game sales slide 23% in August

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:28PM EST
BGR

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Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the United States continued to slide in August according to new data from NPD Group, again dipping more than 20% compared to the same period last year. Overall industry sales slid 23% to $669.9 million last month from $873.8 million in August 2010. Hardware sales were down 12% from last year to $249.4 million, accessory sales were down just 1% to $134.7 million and software sales plummeted 34% to $264.8 million. “August 2011 sales saw a decline versus August 2010 in all categories except for portable games hardware,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. “In software, the bulk of the decline can be attributed to the shift of the annual Madden release from August to September (8/30 release falls within NPD’s September 2011 reporting period).” Frazier continued, “Even though year to date performance of the new physical portion of the industry is down 5%, more than half of industry sales in this channel are still to be realized in the back four months of the year.  Given the strong release schedule in the coming months, new physical retail sales could still be flat to slightly up once full year sales are tallied.” Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the seventh consecutive month in August with 308,000 units sold. NPD’s top-10 list of video game software title sales in the month of August follows below.

Rank Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC) Publisher
1 Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360, PS3, PC)** Square Enix Inc
2 NCAA Football 12 (360, PS3) Electronic Arts
3 Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzard
4 Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd (NDS, Wii, PS3) Disney Interactive Studios
5 Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC) Disney Interactive Studios
6 Just Dance Summer Party (Wii) Ubisoft
7 Just Dance 2 (Wii) Ubisoft
8 Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) Disney Interactive Studios
9 The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) Nintendo
10 Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3) Majesco
Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.