NPD: Video Games Sales Down; Accessories Eke Out 2% Gain

By Lisa Johnston On Sep 21 2009 - 6:00am

The video games market dropped 16 percent in August sales from the prior year, according to The NPD Group, with the broken-out software and hardware categories each experiencing declines. Accessories, however, showed a 2 percent growth for the period.

Anita Frazier, NPD analyst, said in a statement: “The industry realized its sixth consecutive month-over-month decline, and while improved over the last several months, it's still a notable decline. The back four months of the year would have to be up 14 percent in aggregate for 2009 to come in flat in comparison to 2008 sales.”

Video game sales tallied in at $908.7 million for August 2009, compared with $1.09 billion in August 2008. Broken out, hardware sales were down 25 percent to $297.6 million, compared with $395.3 million, and software sales were down 15 percent to $470.3 million, compared with $552 million.

Video games accessories had $140.8 million in sales for August, compared with $137.7 million in the prior-year period. Frazier said the sole uptick “in hardware sales helps to spur sales of additional controllers and other peripherals which help consumers enjoy their new system(s).”

NPD Group's U.S. Video Games Industry Dollar Sales
Aug. 2 through Aug. 29

Hardware Units

Top 10 Video Game Console/Portable SKUs August 2009