NPD Software: Call of Duty Tops Chart, Industry Enters Tailspin

December 2011 was a much worse than expected period for video game sales in the United States, with the overall value of the retail market tracked by the NPD Group dropping by no less than 14 percent when compared to the same period of 2010.

The top 10 NPD Group compiled video game chart for the United States market includes:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC
2. Just Dance 3 - Wii, Xbox 360, PS3
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Xbox 360, PS3, PC
4. Mario Kart 7 – Nintendo 3DS
5. Battlefield 3 – Xbox 360, PS3, PC
6. Madden NFL 12 – Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2
7. Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Xbox 360, PS3, PC
8. NBA 2K12 – Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC
9. Super Mario 3D Land – Nintendo 3DS
10. Batman: Arkham City – Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Anita Frazier, who is the analyst who delivers comment on the NPD figures, stated, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 landed in the top spot for software title sales for both December and for Annual 2011. Looking at the top 10 titles for the year, two franchises scored with two titles each: Call of Duty and Just Dance - two franchises that couldn’t be more different, demonstrating the range of appealing content on consoles in 2011.”

The decline surprised analysts who have been predicting that the value would grow by about 2 percent or decline by 5% tops.

Video game sales have reached 2.04 billion dollars during December (1.59 billion Euro) and the value goes up by about 100 million dollars (78 million Euro) when retail PC games are included.

December was traditionally seen as a month when the big releases push the industry forward and analysts were hoping for good results to generate some momentum for 2012.