Report: U.S. Game Sales Up Just 9% in August to $1.08 Billion

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 12, 2008 - 9:58am.

Port Washington, N.Y. - U.S. video game sales were up 9% in August, to $1.08 billion, representing the smallest jump in over two years, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. "Despite smaller growth this month, the industry is up 32 percent year-to-date and remains on target to achieve annual revenues in the range of $22 billion to $24 billion," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

Sales of game hardware rose 3% to $395 million; the Nintendo DS led with 518,300 units sold, followed by the Nintendo Wii (453,000), Sony (NYSE: SNE) PSP (253,000), Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) Xbox (195,200) and Sony PlayStation 3 (185,400).

Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL 09" led all game software with 2.3 million in sales; other top sellers included Nintendo's "Wii Fit" and "Mario Kart."

Overall, game software sales were up 13% year-over-year to nearly $551 million.