Now US reports drastic video game market falls in February

The latest numbers from sales tracker NPD show that the US video games market suffered a 20 per cent year-on-year decline to $1.06bn in February.

The news comes after MCV revealed yesterday that the UK market suffered a 29 per cent decline last month.

Back in the US, software suffered the largest falls, dipping 24 per cent year-on-year. Modern Warfare 3 was the best selling title for the fourth consecutive month.

Xbox 360 was once again the best selling hardware, with Microsoft claiming monthly sales of 426,000 consoles.

It’s the 14th consecutive month that the machine has topped the hardware charts in the region and a 50 per cent increase over January. The platform holder adds that it has held a 40 per cent plus market share for one year in the US.

The arrival of PlayStation Vita late in the month reduced annual hardware decline to just 18 per cent, though on a month-on-month basis they shot up 87 per cent.

Nintendo hardware fared well, too, with Wii sales climbing 50 per cent to 228,000. That takes the machine to a total of over 39m unit sales in the region. 3DS sales climbed 53 per cent to 262,000 and DS sales shot up by 76 per cent to 135,000.

That wasn’t all Nintendo had to cheer either – sales of Super Mario Galaxy have now exceeded 5m units. It’s the fifth Wii title to hit the milestone

Accessory sales fell 16 per cent despite an excellent showing from Activision’s Skylanders, which on its own claimed seven per cent of the overall sector.