Game Sales Plunged 37% in April

Posted on May 18, 2010

Marketwatch reports that data from the NPD Group indicates that April was another bad month for video game sales. Marketwatch says "relatively weak set of releases failed to entice consumers."

Sales were down 37% compared to April, 2009. NPD Group says part of the reason was the Easter holiday, but that doesn't fully explain a 37% plunge.

NPD blamed part of the weakness on a difficult comparison with 2009's April period, which included the Easter holiday, while this year's did not. It was the industry's worst year-over-year decline since July of last year.

"In April '09, consumers attributed $55 million of industry sales to Easter as a purchase occasion, which would account for about 21% of the decline from last year since Easter purchasing happened in March this year," wrote NPD analyst Anita Frazier in the report Thursday.

The top selling game in April was Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction.

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