The NPD Group reported on Thursday that U.S.
video game equipment and
software sales suffered a 31 percent drop in June to $1.2 billion.
That included a hardware sales drop of 38 percent, a gaming software drop of 29 percent, and a drop in gaming accessories of 22 percent, Reuters said, quoting NPD figures.
Nintendo's Wii remained the top-selling gaming console despite a 45 percent drop in sales in June compared to last year, but Microsoft's Xbox 360 experienced a sales increase over that time.
That brings the overall video game sales for the entire year-to-date down by 12 percent, NPD said.
Meanwhile, NPD reported on June 29 that females are taking a significantly larger part of the overall gaming market.
According to its Gamer Segmentation 2009 report, there was a 4 percent rise in females among both heavy portable gamers and extreme gamers.
Among console gamers, 28 percent are females in 2009, compared to 23 percent in 2008, and are especially active as Wii players.
