Another round of North American sales numbers from NPD Group are in, and they bring somewhat sad news this time.
In April, the industry experienced its worst overall year-over-year decline since July of last year and “the fourth largest year-over-year percentage decline ever after September 2000, June ’09 and July ’09,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier explains. Sales were down 26% over April 2009, from $1.03 billion to $766.2 million. On an accumulated year-to-date basis, the numbers are down 11%, from $5.29 billion by April 2009 to $4.37 billion by April 2010.
Looking at hardware sales, nothing’s changed in the order of things since last month:
1. Nintendo DS – 440,800 units
2. Wii – 277,200 units
3. Xbox 360 – 185,400 units
4. PlayStation 3 – 180,800 units
5. PSP – 65,500 units
On the software end of things, Ubisoft’s newcomer Splinter Cell: Conviction has taken top honors for the month while shifting over 485k copies, followed by mostly of DS and Wii titles:
1. Splinter Cell: Conviction (Ubisoft Montreal, Xbox 360) – 486,100 units
2. Pokemon SoulSilver (Game Freak, DS) – 242,900 units
3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 200,300 units
4. Pokemon HeartGold (Game Freak, DS) – 192,600 units
5. God of War III (SCE Santa Monica, PlayStation 3) – 180,300 units
6. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii)
7. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA DICE, Xbox 360)
8. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii)
9. Just Dance (Ubisoft, Wii)
10. Super Street Fighter IV (Capcom, PlayStation 3)
