Game Sales Fall 23% in August

8 Sep, 2011 By: Billy Gil

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Video game sales fell 23% in August, to $669.9 million, compared with August 2010, when they totaled $873.8 million.

“August 2011 sales saw a decline versus August 2010 in all categories except for portable games hardware,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “In software, the bulk of the decline can be attributed to the shift of the annual ‘Madden’ release from August to September.”

The Aug. 30 release falls within NPD’s September 2011 reporting period.

The biggest drop came in software sales, which saw a 37% drop to $285.9 million from $455 million. Hardware sales were down 12%, to $249.4 million from $282.9 million, while accessory sales only saw a 1% drop, to $134.7 million from $135.8 million.

“All platforms (if you combine DS and 3DS) saw unit sales increases over July,” Frazier said. “The 3DS price cut drove portable hardware sales into positive territory, to a year-over-year increase in both unit and dollar sales. The PS3 price cut also drove a notable uptick in sales of that platform.”

The top games for the month, in order, were Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Square Enix; Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC), NCAA Football 12 (Electronic Arts; 360, PS3) and Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard; 360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC).
 

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