NPD: October down 4% year-on-year

American sales tracker NPD has announced that the US video games market was worth $1.07bn in October 2010 – that’s four per cent down on the same month in 2009.

Year-to-date US gaming has made $11.07bn, eight per cent less than it had at this stage last year.

Hardware saw the steepest decline, falling 26 per cent annually to $280m. DS was named as the best selling device, though Xbox 360 was the only console to see year-on-year gains. Microsoft’s machine is currently the best selling home console of 2010, ahead of both Wii and PS3.

Software, in contrast, was up six per cent on October 2009 at $605m, though year-to-date software sales are down seven per cent at $5.54bn.

2K Sports’ NBA 2K11 was the best selling game of the month, with Bethesda’s Fallout: New Vegas claiming second spot and EA’s franchise reboot Medal of Honor in third.

Note two the success of FIFA 11, which remains in the monthly top ten for the second month in succession. Rock Band 3 managed a 15th place finish and received particular credit from NPD as it only had six days on the market in October.

As compared to last October, new launches were more productive this year,” NPD’s Anita Frazier noted. Average unit sales per new SKU were 23 percent higher than newly introduced SKU’s last year.”

Here’s the US Top Ten in full:

1. NBA 2K11 (Take-Two)
2. Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda)
3. Medal of Honor (EA)
4. Fable III (Microsoft)
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (LucasArts)
6. Halo: Reach (Microsoft)
7. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
8. FIFA Soccer 11 (EA)
9. Madden NFL 11 (EA)
10. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 (THQ)