Black Ops ahead as December sales slide 9% - NPD

Posted by Tony Smith on April 27th, 2018

The game industry received a lump of coal in the stocking this Christmas, because industry-tracking NPD Group today revealed underwhelming total US retail sales of gaming hardware and software with the month of December. According to the people figures, sales dropped significantly for that month, despite some analysts' wants growth. For the month of December, the NPD Group reported that total US retail sales of gaming software, hardware, and accessories were .06 billion, down 9 percent from exactly the same period recently.   
With sales of 12 million, Black Ops isn't exactly keeping the lowest profile.  Activision's blockbuster Call of Duty: Black Ops repeated because the best-selling game from the month and contains now reached sales of 12 million Warmane Gold from the US alone. According on the NPD Group, that's greater than double another best-selling game from the year, EA Sports' Madden NFL 11. Unfortunately, even if it's just Black Ops' continued success could push software sales into positive territory. Console, handheld, and PC games combined to offer .53 billion, down about 5 % year-over-year.    
The software charts saw a few new faces, led by Cataclysm, the newest expansion to Blizzard's massively multiplayer sport World of Warcraft. Cataclysm debuted in third place, behind only Black Ops and Ubisoft's Wii-exclusive rhythm hit, Just Dance 2. Two more new arrivals from the top 10 were technically released in November but arrived too late from the month to top the charts. Disney Epic Mickey claimed sixth set up December, while Michael Jackson The Experience put another Ubisoft dance game from the top 10 for the eighth spot.    
While the King of Pop's game became available on the Wii, DS, and PSP, Ubisoft says nearly 90 percent in the copies sold were in the Wii version, making on an atypically strong showing from the number of third-party exclusives on Nintendo's console. Nintendo itself been able to place one of its very own games within the top 10, your fifth-place Retro Studios-developed Donkey Kong Country Returns.    
A amount of other titles would have been with a list from the top 10 best-selling SKUs but didn't make cut for that NPD Group's multiplatform overall sales list. Those games included Microsoft's Kinect Sports and Dance Central, in addition to THQ's UDraw Studio for your Wii, which came packed within the UDraw Tablet peripheral.    
Much just like the software market, hardware sales were depressed in December, with US retailers moving only .84 billion in consoles and portables, down 16 percent year-over-year. There were some success stories within the mix, however, as being the Xbox 360 posted its best month of sales ever, selling 1.9 million units. It was also really the only system to write a year-over-year improvement in unit sales. However, Nintendo's DS still topped the hardware charts with the month, pushing its US lifetime-to-date sales to 47 million and surpassing the PlayStation 2.    
The only improved market segment for December was accessory sales. Peripherals enjoyed the most beautiful single-month sales total ever, raking in 3.2 million, an increase of 10 % from 2009 levels. The Kinect was the best-selling peripheral to the second month consecutively, while online currency and subscription card sales increased probably the most over last December's numbers.    
"December 2010 represented one from the strongest monthly performances the has had at retail," Entertainment Software Association president Michael Gallagher said in the statement released alongside the numbers. "It became a robust finish into a year marked by innovation and engaging a lot of consumers via a multitude of delivery models. Computer and games led all the other entertainment options when we responded to consumers' demands for creative content on every platform from consoles to cell phones to handheld game devices."  MMOAH is capable of providing a better service for Kronos Gold trading. We have provided service for thousands and thousands of players in all over the world.