Video game sales down 23 percent in May

NPD Group reported that US video game market has fallen by 23 percent in May compared to the same period a year earlier. Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories dropped to $863.3 million in May, down from $1.12 billion in May of last year.

Hardware and accessories sales were hit the hardest, these segments faced a revenue drop of 30 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Video game sales on the other hand were down by 17 percent.

Hardware sales fell 30 percent to 302.5 million dollars while software sales fell 17 percent to 448.9 million dollars. Sales of accessories were 25 percent lower at 112 million dollars.

"The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year," NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier said, although she added that "May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months."

"Every category declined versus a year ago with the exception of portable hardware sales which was bolstered by the continued strong sales of the Nintendo DS including both the DSi and the Lite," she said.

The most popular console was the Nintendo Wii with 289,500 units shipped, followed by the Xbox 360 on sales of 175,000 units. The PlayStation 3 took the third spot with 131,000 units while older brother PlayStation 2 still managed to score 117,000 sales. The top handheld console was the Nintendo DS with 633,500 units sold, the Sony PSP follows at a significant distance with 100,400 units.

The most popular games in May were UFC 2009 Undisputed (Xbox 360 / PS3), Wii Fit with Balance Board and EA Sports Active Bundle (Wii).