U.S. video game retail sales for June saw a year-over-year decline of 30 percent, according to retail tracking firm NPD. Total sales declined from $989.5MM to $699.8MM. The biggest decline came from hardware, which dropped 45 percent. Xbox 360 led hardware sales for the month with 257,000 units sold.
“These sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories, which account for roughly 50-60 percent of the total consumer spend on games," comment NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "When you consider our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales such as used and rentals at $170MM, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and the consumer spend on social network games at $491MM, we would estimate the total consumer spend in June to be $1.36B.
"Our final assessment of the consumer spend on these areas outside of new physical retail sales will be reported in September in our Q2 Games Market Dynamics: U.S. report.”
For software, Warner Bros.' Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes sold 450,000 total across seven platforms, the most of any game. "Batman may be on consumer’s minds with Batman: Arkham City also ranking sixth, and with the latest movie, Dark Knight Rises, debuting later in July," says Frazier. The publisher's other title for June, Lollipop Chainsaw, did not chart in the top 10 and sold 107,200 units total, according to NPD.
June 2012 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC)
- Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (360, Wii, PS3, NDS, 3DS, PSV, PC)
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (360, PS3, PC)
- Diablo III (PC)**
- Max Payne 3 (360, PS3, PC)**
- NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC)
- Batman Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)**
- Pokemon Conquest (NDS)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)**
- Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**
- The Amazing Spider-Man (360, PS3, 3DS, NDS, Wii)
