NPD Group said on Thursday that US videogame industry sales for the year are on track to hit US$20 billion despite not measuring up to stellar revenues seen last year.
Sales of videogame software and hardware last month totaled US$2.7 billion, a 7.6 percent drop from the same month last year but still the second-best November revenue figures on record, the market research company said.
US videogame sales for the first 11 months of this year were some US$14 billion, about 12 percent less than at the same point last year but 7 percent higher than at the end of November 2007.
“I think we all have to realize the incredible year that was 2008,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said.
Based on a traditional spike in sales during the year-end shopping season, the videogame industry is on track to take in US$20 billion this year, Frazier said.
To hit that mark, videogame sales for this month would need to be 11 percent higher than they were in the same month last year.
“Impossible? I don’t think so,” Frazier said. “More positive economic news combined with ‘frugal fatigue’ could positively impact industry sales during these last weeks of the holiday season.”
Each of the rival videogame consoles saw increases in sales last month. Nintendo led the pack, selling 1.23 million Wii devices while Microsoft ranked second by selling 819,500 Xbox 360 consoles, NPD said.
US sales of Sony PlayStation 3 consoles hit 710,400 while the Japanese electronics titan sold 203,100 of the previous generation PlayStation 2 (PS2) models, the industry tracker reported.
“I was really impressed by the performance of the PS2, which after 109 months in market is still experiencing strong sales,” Frazier said.
PS3 consoles logged the greatest increase over last year’s November sales and had the third best monthly sales ever for the system.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released last month and blasted its way into record books by having the best opening month in videogame history.
New Super Mario Brothers for the Wii was the second-best selling title for the month, followed by Assassin’s Creed 2 by French videogame powerhouse Ubisoft.
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