Video-game industry sales in the US have slumped. NPD shows that May saw a 23 per cent drop year-on-year, with falls led by hardware sales.

Electronic Arts had already predicted single digit growth, but it's still a while to holiday season, when sales are expected to pick up.

NPD also shows that THQ’s UFC 2009 Undisputed was the top game, with sales of just over 1m units. Wii Fit still did well in second place, with 353,000 units sold. EA’s Sports Active was only just behind on 346,000.

Hardware sales were down nearly a third (30 per cent) on last year, at $302m. Wii sales fell dramatically, from 340,000 in April to 290,000 in May.

Anita Frazier, analyst with NPD, said, “The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1bn since August 2007."

Source: FT

Labels: EA, gaming, Wii