Port Washington, N.Y. – 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).”
