On Thursday the NPD Group reported the worst video game sales figures since July 2009. With a total revenue of $766 million, the game industry's April slump accounted for a substantive 26% decrease in software sales from March or about a 24% decrease from yearly earnings sampled this time last year. Alongside software sales, hardware sales fell too with an even unhealthier decrease of 37%. Last month's plunge is thought to be due in part to Easter landing in March of this year. The holiday's typical sales account for roughly 50 million games, which were reflected in March's positive sales figures.
Some interesting numbers to note include last month's top selling game, Splinter Cell: Conviction with 486,000 units sold (we just posted our GPU/CPU performance guide for that SC: Conviction this morning). Distant runners up include Pokemon SoulSilver at 242,900 units, the New Super Mario Bros. with 200,300, Pokemon HeartGold hovering around 192,500 and God of War III in a very close fifth place with 180,300 units sold.
In the video game hardware arena, we see the Nintendo DS with strong sales at 440,800 units. We also recently reported that Wii console sales had taken a dive, but it is still by far the most popular system with 277,200 units sold last month. The venerable Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 held fast around 180,000-185,000 units, and the lagger with 65,500 units sold was the PSP.
https://www.techspot.com/news/38960-npd-game-sales-take-a-dive-in-april.html
