NPD: US sales down again in May

Sales in the US console business were down again in May to $823.5 million, a 5 per cent decrease on the previous year, according to data from the NPD Group.

Hardware took the biggest hit, down 20 per cent to $241.5 million, with software sales up 4 per cent to $466.3 million and accessories up 3 per cent to $115.7 million.

Unit sales of consoles were flat compared to last May, with revenues down due to the lower price of hardware, noted NPD. Nintendo DS had the best sales, with 383,700 units, followed by Wii sales of 334,800.

Microsoft sold a further 194,600 Xbox 360 units and Sony's PlayStation 3 154,500. The PSP sold 59,400 units.

As expected, Take-Two's Red Dead Redemption was the biggest game of the month, selling over 1.5 million copies and significantly better in Xbox 360 than PlayStation 3.

Take-Two's Ben Feder said earlier in the week the the game had "sucked the oxygen" out of the market, and NPD numbers seem to back that statement up. Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy 2, the second best seller of the month, sold 563,900 units during the month.

THQ's UFC 2010 managed 413,400 units on 360 and PS3, while Microsoft's Xbox 360 exclusive Alan Wake managed to break into the top ten at number eight.

Sales for the full year are down 10 per cent compared to 2009, with hardware down 20 per cent and software down 6 per cent - overall sales are $5.56 billion.

The full NPD data follows:

Hardware sales for May

• 01 Nintendo DS - 383,700
• 02 Wii - 334,800
• 03 Xbox 360 - 194,600
• 04 PlayStation 3 - 154,500
• 05 PSP - 59,400

Software sales for May

• 01 Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360) - 945,900
• 02 Red Dead Redemption (PlayStation3) - 567,100
• 03 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - 563,900
• 04 UFC 2010: Undisputed (Xbox 360) - 221,100
• 05 UFC 2010: Undisputed (PlayStation 3) - 192,300
• 06 Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
• 07 New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
• 08 Alan Wake (Xbox 360)
• 09 Pokemon SoulSilver Version (DS)
• 10 Skate 3 (Xbox 360)