14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group has released its sales figures for the month of April in the United States, showing yet another big drop when compared to last year, when it comes to both hardware and software sales.
The company says that the video game industry has seen a drop to a low of 630.4 million dollars (488.1 million Euro) for the month, with the drop in software reaching 42 percent while that of hardware stood at 32%.
The bestselling piece of hardware has been the Xbox 360 home consoles from Microsoft, which has managed to move 236,000 units to players during the month, which has been the 16th it has spent at the top of the hardware chart.
The rest of the hardware chart was not made public, but Anita Frazier, an analyst working with the NPD Group, is saying that, “One thing to keep in mind is that the 3DS has outsold the DS by about one million units in their respective first 14 months in the market, and the DS went on to become the best-selling gaming hardware system ever.”
The video game top ten chart includes:
1. Prototype 2 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 2. Kinect Star Wars - Xbox 360) 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Xbox 360, PS3, PC 4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 - Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 5. NBA 2K12 - Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, PSP, PC, PS2 6. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: Enhanced Edition - Xbox 360, PC 7. Mario Party 9 – Nintendo Wii 8. Mass Effect 3 - Xbox 360, PS3, PC 9. Just Dance 3 – Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 10. MLB 12: The Show - PS3, Vita
Anita Frazier added, “I think what the new physical retail content sales reflect a very light release schedule in terms of the amount of compelling new games. Last April, the top seven titles outsold the top-selling title this year, and, simply stated, there were notably fewer new market introductions.”