NPD: US market down 5.7% in 2010

The latest numbers from US games tracker NPD have shown that the US video games market declined 5.7 per cent year-on-year in 2010.

This means that of the world’s leading video games markets the US market declined less the least. The Japanese market shrank by nine per cent in 2010 and the UK market by 13 per cent.

The total value of the US market hit $18.5bn. Console sales fell a total of 12.5 per cent to $6.3bn and software sales fell 5.6 per cent to $9.4bn.

Accessories (under which Move is classified as per NPD’s interpretation) were up 13 per cent and, surprisingly, PC games were up three per cent.

The dynamics of games content purchasing changed dramatically in 2010withoptions ranging from the physical product to digital downloads on connecteddevices as well as in-store digital kiosks,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier explained.

The increasing number of ways to acquire thecontent has allowed the industry to maintain total consumer spend oncontent as compared to 2009, and we should expect 2011 to be a growth yearin the games industry as the consumer demand for gaming continues toevolve."

For the month of December alone the US market was down nine per cent.