US videogame industry sales fell 17 percent for the second month running during April, the NPD Group has reported.

Hardware sales dropped eight percent to $391.63 million, software sales declined 23 percent to $510.74 million, and accessory sales fell 15 percent to $129.45 million.

"While April sales might appear soft on the surface, it's important to remember that April is being compared against a month (April 2008) that realised nearly 50 percent growth over April 2007,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “This year's performance still represents the second-best performance for the industry in the month of April, besting April 2007, which is the previous second-place holder, by 26 percent.”

Year-to-date US industry sales now total $5.28 billion, four percent down on revenues generated during the first four months of 2008, which turned out to be a record-breaking year for the industry.

"Given how strong the growth was in the industry last year, there are still some months ahead where year-over-year comparisons may be difficult, but May should be an easier comparison than the last two months have been,” said Frazier.

"Despite being compared against last year, when several big title releases drove both software sales and hardware acquisition, April 2009 was down only five percent on a unit sales basis, with the remainder of dollar sales decline coming from reduced average selling prices. Easter fell in April this year which undoubtedly helped cushion the decline.

"While the continued difficult economic environment is a factor to consider, our monthly Consumer Spending Indicator study still shows that video games is the category that consumers tell us they're least likely to cut their spending on in coming months."

Hardware sales data, rankings and analysis can be found here.
Software sales data, April chart and analysis can be found here.
April’s top 20 PC chart can be found here.
March sales data can be found here.

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