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NPD October: More Sports, Less Profit

Mark Limburg avatar
News by Mark Limburg Contributor
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The NPD Group has released their October US retail report, with yet another and rather significant Year-On-Year decline in overall sales.

From the previous $1 billion year mark in October 2011, overall sales for this month witnessed a near 25 per cent drop, coming in at $755.5m. Having declared such, the group has also made note that this figure equates to only 50 per cent of the total consumer spend. Plans for a full Q4 US Games Market Dynamic report will include digital and other non-retail figures, providing a more rounded set of data.

Whilst these figures are less an ideal, the group do believe that month to month data remain strong and end of year figures will continue to climb.

Liam Callahan from NPD has stated, “While we saw declines in hardware unit sales across all platforms year-over-year, when looking at average sales per week versus September, several consoles realized higher sales: The 360, PS3, NDS and 3DS. This is a sign of increasing momentum as we move into the holiday season."

Software

Overall, software sales were down by 25 per cent, $432.6m compared to $576.8m in October 2011. A noticeable point being that portable software sales demonstrated a figure of 37 per cent growth.

Callahan made specific mention to NBA 2K13, which "outsold last year's 2K12 by over 60 per cent in both dollars and units."

The top 10 selling games were:

  • NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PC)
  • Resident Evil 6 (360, PS3)
  • Pokémon Black Version 2 (NDS)
  • Dishonored (360, PS3, PC)
  • Pokémon White Version 2 (NDS)
  • Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV)
  • FIFA Soccer 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, 3DS, PSP)
  • Medal of Honor: Warfighter (360, PS3, PC)
  • Borderlands 2 (360, PS3, PC)
  • Skylander Giants (Wii, 360, PS3, 3DS)

Hardware

Comparative to software, hardware sales faced a stronger decline and accounted for $187.3m during the month, which equates to a decrease of 37 per cent compared to the $295.9m earned in the same period last year.

Once again, the XBOX 360 came out ahead of the competition selling 270,000 units during the period and claiming over 40 per cent of the market in its division for the 20th consecutive month.

An interesting sign of hope comes with accessories, as they continue to be a key feature demonstrated by Skylanders; a five per cent increase over October 2011 with $135.6m this month compared to $129.6m.

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