NPD Hardware: Xbox 360 Again Leads the Pack During Dismal Month

The NPD Group has released its monthly sales figures for the United States market for May, showing that the retail performance of the video game industry has slumped during the month, reaching just 743.1 million dollars, the lowest total seen since 2006 according to the tracking firm.

The 14 percent decline over the same period of 2010 comes just after a good month in April, when the industry showed an unexpected increase in sales of 20%.

When it comes to hardware sales Microsoft was quick to point out that it has again managed to have the best-selling home console yet again, with the Xbox 360 managing to move 270,000 units to gamers, more than the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii.

Anita Frazier, who is an analyst working with the NPD Group, has stated, “Overall, the Xbox 360 platform has contributed 34 percent of year-to-date revenues (across hardware, content and accessories) generated by new physical retail sales, gaining 7 share points over last year.”

Overall hardware sales were down 5 percent when compared to the same period of last year, generating just 228.9 million dollars.

Sony has said that the PS3 has also seen an increase year over year and its numbers indicate that more than 176,000 devices were sold.

Nintendo has not offered sales numbers for the Wii, the Nintendo DS line or the newer Nintendo 3DS, which saw a big launch but has since slowed down significantly.

Frazier commented, “Sales of the 3DS were light, but with next Sunday's release of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, we will begin to see a slate of strong content come to market for the 3DS, which should help to significantly boost sales of hardware during the remainder of 2011.”

Sales of accessories came in at 114 million dollars, with both the Kinect and the PlayStation Move motion tracking systems losing steam.