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Numbers are in for the past month at US retail from NPD, with results showing yet another poor sales period for the market.
February 2013 saw total industry sales at $810m, a 25 per cent year-over-year decline which stings even worse considering how bad February 2012 fared. Software sales were down 27 per cent at $369.9m, while hardware dove 36 per cent to $244.2m.
Accessories also saw a slight three per cent slip to $213.9m.
"Though there was the same number of February launches in the top ten ranking as last February, collectively, February launches performed worse than last year with unit sales down 30 percent," NPD analyst Liam Callahan said.
Despite the general slump, Callahan specifically noted the ongoing success of Skylanders as a boon for the market.
"When combining the dollar value of Skylanders software as well as accessories, this property has generated over $600 million in the US since launching in October 2011, and sold $35 million in February alone. It will be interesting to watch how this dynamic of physical goods delivering digital content evolves with the launch of Disney Infinity later this year."
Xbox 360 took the hardware chart once again (for the 26th straight month), selling a total of 302,000 units. That said, Callahan noted a bump in Vita and Wii U sales.
"Looking at hardware sales on an average per week basis, all platforms showed an increase from January into February,” he said. Specifically, new platforms like the Wii U and PS Vita demonstrated some momentum from the typical January hardware lull with increases of over 40 percent and 30 percent, respectively.”
On the software side, EA grabbed top spot with Dead Space 3, with Crysis 3 finishing in third behind Activision’s November 2012 release Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Sega’s Aliens: Colonial Marines managed to finish in sixth, despite being critically panned.
NPD points out that the figures reflect only around 50 per cent of total spending.
The top ten selling software titles for last month:
February 2013 top 10 games (new physical retail only, all platforms)
- Dead Space 3 (PC, PS3, X360)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (PC, PS3, Wii U, X360)
- Crysis 3 (PC, PS3, X360)
- NBA 2K13 (PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Wii U, X360)
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3, X360)
- Aliens: Colonial Marines (PC, PS3, X360)
- Just Dance 4 (PS3, Wii, Wii U, X360)
- Far Cry 3 (PC, PS3, X360)
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3, Vita)
- Madden NFL 13 (PS3, Vita, Wii, Wii U, X360
