In keeping line with today's videogame sales figures news, the NPD Group has unsurprisingly revealed that Black Ops 2 ruled 2012's retail charts in the United States.
However, even with Call of Duty's massive sales, December of 2012 looked pretty grim as the total industry sales at retail dropped by 22%. Comparatively, industry sales in December closed at $3.21 billion, thus brings 2012's total to $13.26 billion, which is a significant drop from 2011's close to $17 billion total.
Consoles and other videogame hardware was down 20% in December, raking in $1.07 billion and down 27% for the year, which totals to $4.04 billion. On the software side of the spectrum, games in December, which includes PC, dropped 27% to $1.58 billion, while the annual total fell 22% to $7.09 billion. Gaming peripherals and accessories also saw a drop to 8% with a total of $2.51 billion.
As per the norm when it comes to game sales data, NPD states that the numbers for December at retail represent about 50% of the tota; consumer spend. Once you factor in digital, used games, rentals and whatnot, the overall total climbs to roughly $4.1 billion.
Speaking of digital, there is one silver-lining in all of the doom-and-gloom. According to NPD, 2012 was the best year for point cards and subscription sales as more and more people bought games on Xbox LIVE. the PSN and Nintendo's eShop. Of note, Journey and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition broke records for number of games downloaded.
Here's the complete list of physical retail games that peformed well for December as well as for 2012 (via GamesIndustry).
I don't know about you, but hearing how the Xbox 360 sold 1.4 million units at retail in December or the Wii U moving more than 400,000 in the same month makes you wonder why sales are still in a slump.
Maybe the announcement (and hopefully release) of next-gen consoles this year should liven things up at the register. In any event, 2013 seems to have more games scattered overall, so it wouldn't surprise me if this year trumps 2012 in overall earnings for the industry.
What games are you buying this year to help out the "ailing" games industry?
