Last week the NPD Group released June 2009 sales figures for the US videogames industry, revealing a fourth consecutive month of year-on-year sales declines. The results confirmed earlier analyst warnings of a significant drop in revenues as relatively few high profile titles hit the shelves and economic pressures kept consumer spending to a minimum.

June saw total US videogames revenues hit $1.17 billion, down 31 per cent year-on-year from $1.7 billion. Year-to-date revenues totaled $7.31 billion, down 12 per cent from $8.3 billion during the same period in 2008.



Hardware Revenue
Total hardware sales for June came to $382.62 million, a 38 per cent fall from last year's result of $617.25 million. Hardware accounted for 33.7 per cent of total revenues during the month, 3.6 per cent less than it did during the same month in 2008.

Year-to-date videogame hardware sales were down 13 per cent at $2.51 billion. Hardware sales during 2009 have accounted for 34 per cent of the industry’s revenues for the combined six month period. This is a drop from the first half of 2008, which saw total hardware revenues hit $2.89 billion, accounting for 35 per cent.

Software Revenue
June also saw software sales fall short of previous amounts. However, the sector accounted for a greater share of total revenues. Software sales reached $625.79 million, a 29 per cent drop from the previous year's total of $875.75 million. Sales represented 53.9 per cent of total revenues for the month, a growth of nearly two per cent on the previous year.

Year-to-date software sales are down 12 per cent to $3.79 billion, from $4.32 billion in 2008. During the six month period, software sales accounted for 51.8 per cent of total revenues, a slight drop from 2008's 52 per cent.

Accessories
Sales of videogame accessories were recorded at $158.2 million, down by 22 per cent year-on-year from $202.8 million. Despite falling sales revenue, the accessories market grew from 12 per cent of the total market in June 2008 to 14 per last month.

Year-to-date sales dropped by eight per cent to $1 billion, compared to last year's $1.09 billion. However, once again the sector's share of the market increased, from 13 per cent to 14 per cent.

While the overall position of the accessories market was in decline, Nintendo issued a statement celebrating the success of its Wii MotionPlus peripheral, which sold 169,000 standalone units - excluding units bundled with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - following its release on June 8. Priced at $19.99, it can be assumed that the Wii MotionPlus generated around $3.38 million, or two per cent of total accessories revenues.