It was a slow July for video game sales, as it usually is. Having said that, the revenue numbers for retail sales for games and hardware for July 2011 were $707.7 million, down a whopping 26 percent compared to the same period a year ago. IndustryGamers reports that according to data from the NPD Group, that sales of game software were $336.2 million, down 17 percent while sales of game hardware came in at $229 million for July, down 29 percent. Game accessory sales were $127.8 million, down 8 percent. Overall it was the lowest revenue number for retail game sales since October 2006.
The article also states that for the first time since December 2009, sales of Microsoft"s Xbox 360 console suffered a year-by-year decline in July. Microsoft didn"t mention that little statistic in its official press release today. Instead it choose to concentrate on the good things, saying that sales of the console hit 277,000 units in July, leading sales of all other game consoles for that month. Total Xbox 360 sales, including console, software and accessories, came in at $250 million in July. Microsoft also announced that it has seen over 1 million downloads of its free Kinect Fun Labs since it launched in July.
In terms of retail game sales, EA Sports" NCAA Football 12 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles was the number one best selling game in July at retail stores, followed by Cars 2 for a number of platforms in second place and Call of Duty Black Ops in third place.