NPD: US sales up 8% in November

US game sales are up eight per cent in November compared to the year before, NPD has revealed.

The industry made $2.99 billion last month, up from $2.7bn the year before. This includes $1.08bn in hardware, $1.46bn in software and $413.3m in accessories. All up from the year before.

The entire games market in the US is currently five per cent down year-to-date. The US games market has so far made $14.06bn this year.

"Based on typical seasonality trends, new physical retail sales should come in between $18.8bn to $19.6bn," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

"The higher end of that range would essentially be flat to last year. Gains in November offset a good portion of the year-to-date declines.

"Remember that this data set represents new physical retail sales only.

"We have begun to report on sales realized through other channels such as used game sales, digital distribution and mobile apps among others.

"In the first half of 2010, new physical retail sales at the total industry level accounted for approximately 70 per cent of the total consumer spend against the industry, and while that is likely to change when full year results are tabulated, it gives some context with which to evaluate the portion that new physical retail sales represents."

The full US Top Ten is as follows:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard)
2. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
3. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
4. Madden NFL 11 (EA)
5. Fable III (Microsoft)
6. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Nintendo)
7. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
8. Gran Turismo 5 (Sony)
9. NBA 2K11 (Take-Two)
10. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo)