14 DAY TRIAL // Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, the first-person shooter developed by Treyarch and published by Activision Blizzard, has managed to take the number one position in the United States chart for the month of December.
Second place has gone to Just Dance 4, the motion-based game from Ubisoft, and Halo 4, the Master Chief experience from 343 Industries and publisher Microsoft, has taken last place on the podium.
According to data from the NPD Group, reported by VG247, the rest of the chart is made up of:
Assassin’s Creed 3 Madden NFL 13 Far Cry 3 NBA 2K13 Skylanders Giants New Super Mario Bros. 2 FIFA 13
Video game software sales for December 2012 have declined by 27 percent when compared to the same period of last year.
The NPD Group also says that that top ten selling games of the month, revealed above, have managed to account for close 50% of the overall spending on software, which came in at 1.58 billion dollars (1.19 billion Euro).
Liam Callahan, an analyst for the NPD Group, states, “In December 2012, positive trending for many annualized franchises like Call of Duty, Skylanders, Assassin’s Creed, and FIFA, points to consumers’ increased spending on hits, but that middle-tier games as well as catalog titles are suffering.”
December is traditionally one of the best months for video game sales because of the increased spending that occurs around Christmas and publishers crowd to launch their biggest titles in November to take advantage of it.
If the month cannot post an increase in sales when compared to 2011, then the industry has little chance of seeing a rebound during this year, as long as business continues as usual.
Fans and analysts are expecting to see both Microsoft and Sony announce and launch their new consoles, the Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4, during this year.