The Nintendo 3DS continued to sell well last month as it remained top of the charts for video game hardware sales in the US. But hardware sales across all platforms aren’t looking quite so positive with a noticeable drop in sales for July.
Industry sales as a whole dropped by 19 percent to $443 million in the region, with hardware numbers dropping 34 percent to $99.4 million and software figures (including PC) falling to $222.3 million, a drop of 20 percent; as always, this is focused on physical retail markets.
Poor sales might be attributable to consumers waiting for new consoles such as the PS4 and Xbox One to hit the shelves in time for the Holiday season, or for a price drop on the systems currently available on the market.
Despite the bleak performance for the video game market overall, the Nintendo 3DS remains a hot seller, with sales of the handheld increasing 14 percent compared to the same period in 2012, causing it to retain the top spot for the third month in a row. The last handheld to do so was the Nintendo DS in 2010.
Software sales for the system were high too, thanks in part to the continued chart success of favourites like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which sold a further 150,000 combined units (retail and download) last month to bring its overall US sales up to 660,000 units. Titles such as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Shin Megami Tensei IV also continued to sell well, helping the 3DS flourish in a less than admirable period for the wider market.
Nintendo has given a couple of Wii U snippets of information, with New Super Mario Bros. U passing 830,000 lifetime sales in the region, with the performance of EarthBound also being reserved for praise, though no firm figures were given.
