NPD: U.S. Game Retail For September Sees Overall Dip As Software Edges Up

Falling in line with analyst expectations, United States video game software sales saw a rare increase this month, rising 3 percent year-over-year for September 2011 to $630.2 million, led by EA's Madden NFL 12. Overall U.S. video game retail sales, however, were still down year over year, dropping 6 percent to $1.16 billion. With retail PC game sales excluded, this figure falls to $1.13 billion. Hardware Revenue from new console sales dropped 9 percent percent from September 2010 to $349 million, according to figures provided by the group. Despite weak year-over-year comparisons, combined revenues are up from last month, which saw $249.4M in hardware sales. It's worth pointing out that September was a five-week month while August had only four, which skews this figure slightly. The weekly sales average, however, still rose between the two months. In its own announcement, Microsoft said that the Xbox 360 sold 438,000 units in September, marking the seventh month in which the console has held more than 40 percent of the current-generation console market share. Overall, the platform saw $534 million in total retail spend in September. The NPD group reported that video games accessory sales dropped 14 percent year over year to $154.8 million. Here are the U.S. video game hardware retail sales for September 2011:

*Estimation is based on 20 percent rise over last year's sales disclosed by Sony. Software Total console and portable retail game sales (PC excluded) saw a boost this month, jumping 3 percent year-over-year to $630.2 million. The top 10 retail games in the United States for September 2011 are as follows:

**NPD's data includes all versions except those included in hardware bundles. Of all the high-profile titles that debuted during September, the top selling game for the month was EA's Madden NFL 12. Despite launching on August 30, all sales for the title were counted for September 2011. Following Madden was Epic Games' Xbox 360-exclusive Gears of War 3. In third place was Deep Silver's multiplatform open world title Dead Island, followed by EA sports titles FIFA Soccer 12 and NHL 12. Last week's top title, Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, landed at number six, while Relic's breakout multiplatform shooter , Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, closed out the charts at number 10.