May 2012 US sales down 28% over last year despite Diablo III

Diablo III became the first PC game to lead US videogame sales since Starcraft II two years ago, but it wasn’t enough to prevent sales from suffering a 28% drop from May 2011 to May 2012, according to the NPD Group. This has been a trend in dipping sales for the past few months, starting with February 2012’s 20% drop from February 2011.

Hardware sales were particularly affected, as the Xbox 360’s 160,000 led all other consoles. Overall, console sales were down 39% year-to-date. Accessories were the only segment of the industry to see an increase over last year, primarily due to Skylander: Spyro’s Adventure’s action figure sales. However, Microsoft announced that revenue on Xbox 360 games, hardware, and accessories hit $209 million, which was more than what was spent on the Wii and PlayStation 3 combined.

TOP 10 GAMES FOR MAY 2012

1. Diablo III (PC) - Activision Blizzard

1. Max Payne 3 (X360, PS3) - Take-Two

2. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (X360, PS3) - Ubisoft

3. Prototype 2 (X360, PS3) - Activision

4. NBA 2K12 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) - Take-Two

5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, Wii, PC) - Activision

6. Sniper Elite V2 (X360, PS3) - 505 Games

7. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts

8. Dragon’s Dogma (X360, PS3) - Capcom

9. Just Dance 3 (Wii, X360, PS3) - Ubisoft