August NPD: Xbox 360 leading the way, Madden pushes for the win

The NPD Group, the top game-industry research firm has released figures of the total amount spent on video game products in the United States during August. The company has revealed that U.S. consumers shelled out $818.9 million on games, hardware and accessories over the course of the month, down $27.6 million from July.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the top-selling hardware for the second straight month. The launch of Halo: Reach, an Xbox 360 exclusive, is likely to extend that streak through September. The PlayStation 3 was the only system to see sales increase from July. Meanwhile, the Wii saw its worst month of Sales since launch.

"New physical retail sales of hardware, content and accessories saw another decline in August as compared to last year," said NPD Analyst Anita Frazier. "In fact, this month reflected the lowest sales for August since 2006. While all categories are down in both dollars and units, the portable portion of the industry is down to a greater extent than is the console portion. Portable dollar sales across hardware, software and accessories is down 25% versus last August, while console dollar sales are down 6%."

United States hardware sales for the month of August by units were as follows:

Xbox 360 - 356,700
Nintendo DS - 342,700
Wii - 244,300
PlayStation 3 - 226,000
PlayStation Portable - 79,400

In software sales, Madden NFL 11 scored the top two spots on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Mafia II was also a big player across both consoles, placing number four and seven on the list, respectively.

Sales of new, retail games in the United States for August are as follows: