Video game sales drop 8% in 2009
By Staff -- Playthings, 1/19/2010 8:27:00 AM
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.—US video game sales slipped 8 percent in 2009, according to market research firm The NPD Group, despite record sales in December.
The year’s $19.66 billion tally included sales of video game software, portable and console hardware, and accessories, helped by a December sales performance that “broke all industry records,” according to Michael Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association.
December's results were helped by the best sales month ever for the Wii console, according to Nintendo, with 3.8 million units of the recently discounted console sold. The company's DS Lite and DSi handhelds combined to sell more than 3.3 million units during December, the second biggest month for the company’s handheld business, Nintendo added.
Aside from portable hardware, which experienced a 6 percent increase in revenue in 2009, all video game categories experienced declines for the year, with the largest decline coming from console hardware (-13 percent). Console software and portable software both experienced declines of 10 percent, while video game accessories experienced a 1 percent decline.
Retail sales for computer (PC) game software also experienced declines, with revenue down 23 percent to $538 million in 2009, NPD added. Combined video game and PC game software sales were off 11 percent for the year, to $10.5 billion.
The results slammed shut a long run of gains for a historically cyclical but generally upwardly mobile video game market that thrives whenever new hardware is launched. 2009 was not one of those new hardware fueled years.
"[In 2000] when we started the last decade, video game industry sales, including PC games, totaled $7.98 billion," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. "In 10 years, the industry has changed dramatically in many ways, but most importantly it [grew] over those years by more than 250 percent at retail alone. Considering there are many new sources of revenue, including subscriptions and digital distribution, industry growth is even more impressive."
ESA’s Gallagher noted that December’s strong sales were “a very strong way to transition into 2010. I anticipate these solid sales numbers to continue upward through 2010 with a pipeline full of highly-anticipated titles.”
