Video game sales plummet in January, Xbox leads consoles for sixth straight month

<center><a href="http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/10/video-game-sales-plummet-in-january-xbox-leads-consoles-for-sixth-straight-month"><img class="size-full wp-image-114623 aligncenter" title="xbox-360-console-close" src="http://www-bgr-com.vimg.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/xbox-360-console-close.jpeg" alt="" width="652" height="489" /></a></center>

Sales of video game hardware and software in the United States plummeted last month according to new data from market research firm The NPD Group. The firm’s January figures suggest that sales of video game hardware fell 38% to $199.5 million, down from $324 million in January 2011. Video game software sales slid 38% as well in January, falling to $355.9 million, and sales of accessories in the U.S. dropped 18% year-on-year to $195.2 million. Total industry sales were down 34% to $750.6 million. “January retail performance experienced steep declines with a lack of software launches, and poor Hardware and Accessory performance partly related to bad comps from Kinect-related success in Jan’11,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “Outside of new physical retail sales, we estimate that the consumer spend on other ways to acquire content including used games, full game and add-on content downloads, social network games, mobile games, rentals and subscriptions accounted for an additional $350 – $400 million in sales.” Callahan noted that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the sixth consecutive month in January, and <em>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3</em> was the top-selling software title. A complete list of NPD’s top-10 games for the month follows below.<span id="more-126625"></span>

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<td width="420" height="15">January 2012 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC)</td>

<td width="66">Rank</td>

<td width="143">Publisher</td>

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<tr>

<td height="15">Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC) </td>

<td>1</td>

<td>Activision Blizzzard</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3)</td>

<td>2</td>

<td>Ubisoft</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC) </td>

<td>3</td>

<td>Bethesda Softworks</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC)</td>

<td>4</td>

<td>Take 2 Interactive</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC) </td>

<td>5</td>

<td>Electronic Arts</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2) </td>

<td>6</td>

<td>Electronic Arts</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">Mario Kart 7 (3DS)</td>

<td>7</td>

<td>Nintendo</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (Wii, 3DS, 360, PS3, PC) </td>

<td>8</td>

<td>Activision Blizzzard</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="15">Zumba Fitness 2: Party Yourself (Wii)</td>

<td>9</td>

<td>Majesco</td>

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<td height="15">Saints Row: TheThird (360, PS3, PC) </td>

<td>10</td>

<td>THQ</td>

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Via BRG - Boy Genius Report