Video game sales in the U.S. fell for the third consecutive month in May, according to the latest figures from NPD. Last month was the first time since August 2007 that the games industry dipped below $1 billion in sales from consoles and games, with revenues of 'just' $863.3 million; or 23 percent less than a year ago.
On the hardware side, Nintendo's Wii remained the top-selling console, but sales plunged by more than half to 289,500 units. Conversely, sales for its DS portable gaming devices remained strong with 633,500 units moved. They were followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360 on sales of 175,000 units, Sony's PlayStation 3 on sales of 131,000 units and Sony's PlayStation 2 on sales of 117,000 units.
On the software front, games sales dropped 17% to $448.9 million. One solid performer was UFC 2009 Undisputed, published by THQ, which managed to move 679,600 copies on the Xbox 360 and 334,400 on the PS3. Wii Fit was next on sales of 352,800 units followed closely by EA Sports Active with 345,800 units sold.