Video Game Sales Fall 16 Percent In May To $335.2 Million

Although the numbers look dismal, they don’t take into account other rapidly growing segments of the game industry. May was another crushing month for video game sales. Or was it? At first glance, the numbers look dismal. Game sales fell 16% in May to $335.2 million compared with a year earlier. Sales of game consoles and hardware peripherals dropped 23% to $261.2 million, according to the NPD Group Inc., a market research firm.

This is the first paragraph of an article found on LA Times. It contains some interesting insights that fit the consumer and business insights focus of our blog. The article continues …

Overall sales of both hardware and games fell 19.7% to $596.4 million last month, down from $743.1 million a year earlier. Only game accessories saw an increase, fueled by gift cards for online games and brisk sales of physical toys for Activision Blizzard Inc.’s “Skylanders” game.

But those figures don’t take into account other rapidly growing segments of the game industry.

“To look at these figures in isolation and say, ‘Games are in trouble,’ would be like passing judgment on the music industry based on how well CD sales are doing without considering iTunes or Spotify,” said Anita Frazier, NPD’s game analyst. “You’d be missing a large chunk of the game industry.”

Sales of games for mobile devices and social networks have exploded in recent years. And consumers are spending more on digitally downloaded games to their consoles and computers. Money spent on used games and game rentals has also increased in recent years.

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Read full article on LA Times