July Video Game Sales Show 29 Pct Decline

When the economic doldrums started, there was talk that video games might be recession-proof as consumers "cocooned" at home. July's sales figures seem to bely that idea.

Media analysis firm NPD has released its figures for video game hardware and software sales for the month of July 2009…and thoughts of the video game industry somehow being “recession-proof” are being set aside as the industry marks a 29 percent year-on-year decline in sales to $848.9 million for the month. Taken on their own, hardware sales suffered an even steeper decline: 37 percent compared to July of 2008. Software sales were down 26 percent and accessories sales down 12 percent.

July marks the fifth consecutive month of declining revenue for the video game industry. So far for 2009, the industry has earned $8.16 billion, which is a 14 percent drop in revenue year-to-date compared to 2008.

“In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11 percent (or more) higher than the last five months of last year.”

The Nintendo Wii remained the top-selling console for the month, but its lead isn’t as dominating as is was a year ago: Nintendo sold 252,000 Wii consoles during July, compared to nearly 300,000 for July of 2008. Microsoft managed to sell almost 203,000 Xbox 360 units, and is so far the only console seeing an increase in sales as 2009 rolls along. Meanwhile, the Sony Playstation 3 managed to sell almost 122,000 units, while the ever-more-venerable PS2 sold 108,000 units.

Nintendo also dominated handheld game unit sales, with the DS/DSi family moving almost 540,000 units compared to just under 123,000 units for the PSP.

Nintendo continued to see substantial success in the software category too, accounting for seven of the top ten titles for the month, with Wii Sports Resort (and accompanying Wii MotionPlus) taking the top position with 508,200 units sold for the month.