U.S. video game sales slide 10% in June

Sales of video game hardware and software declined 10% in June according to new data reported by industry watcher The NPD Group. Total content sales including home consoles, portable consoles and PC game sales totaled $1.03 billion last month, down 10% from June 2010. Hardware sales declined 9% from $401.7 million in June 2010 to $366.6 million last month, and software sales dropped 12% over the same period to $469.5 million. Video game accessory sales also declined from June of last year, dropping 11% from $177.7 million in 2010 to $158.9 million last month. Game publisher Take 2 Interactive was responsible for the two best-selling games in June, with L.A. Noire occupying the top spot and Duke Nukem Forever coming in at No. 2 despite low ratings from reviewers. Sony’s Infamous 2 was the third best-selling game for the month, while Disney’s Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game and Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D rounded out the top-5. Overall hardware, software and accessory sales in the first half declined 2.4% compared to the first half of 2010. A list of The NPD Group’s top-10 software titles for the month of June follow below.

L.A. Noire (360, PS3)		1
Duke Nukem Forever (360, PS3, PC)		2
Infamous 2 (PS3)		3
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)		4
Legend of Zelda:  Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)		5
Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC)		6
NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, PC)		7
Mortal Kombat 2011 (PS3, 360)		8
Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)		9
Just Dance 2 (Wii)		10

Tags: 3DS, Accessories, consoles, DSi, Gaming, June, June 2011, Kinect, microsoft, Nintendo, NPD Group, Playstation 3, psp, Sales, sony, video game sales, video games, Wii, Xbox 360

Zach Epstein