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Video game sales plummet in January, Xbox leads consoles for sixth straight month

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:46PM EST
BGR

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Sales of video game hardware and software in the United States plummeted last month according to new data from market research firm The NPD Group. The firm’s January figures suggest that sales of video game hardware fell 38% to $199.5 million, down from $324 million in January 2011. Video game software sales slid 38% as well in January, falling to $355.9 million, and sales of accessories in the U.S. dropped 18% year-on-year to $195.2 million. Total industry sales were down 34% to $750.6 million. “January retail performance experienced steep declines with a lack of software launches, and poor Hardware and Accessory performance partly related to bad comps from Kinect-related success in Jan’11,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “Outside of new physical retail sales, we estimate that the consumer spend on other ways to acquire content including used games, full game and add-on content downloads, social network games, mobile games, rentals and subscriptions accounted for an additional $350 – $400 million in sales.” Callahan noted that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the sixth consecutive month in January, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the top-selling software title. A complete list of NPD’s top-10 games for the month follows below.

January 2012 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC) Rank Publisher
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)** 1 Activision Blizzzard
Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3) 2 Ubisoft
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)** 3 Bethesda Softworks
NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC) 4 Take 2 Interactive
Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)* 5 Electronic Arts
Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)** 6 Electronic Arts
Mario Kart 7 (3DS) 7 Nintendo
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (Wii, 3DS, 360, PS3, PC)** 8 Activision Blizzzard
Zumba Fitness 2: Party Yourself (Wii) 9 Majesco
Saints Row: TheThird (360, PS3, PC)** 10 THQ
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.