Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the United States continued to slide in August according to new data from NPD Group, again dipping more than 20% compared to the same period last year. Overall industry sales slid 23% to $669.9 million last month from $873.8 million in August 2010. Hardware sales were down 12% from last year to $249.4 million, accessory sales were down just 1% to $134.7 million and software sales plummeted 34% to $264.8 million. “August 2011 sales saw a decline versus August 2010 in all categories except for portable games hardware,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. “In software, the bulk of the decline can be attributed to the shift of the annual Madden release from August to September (8/30 release falls within NPD’s September 2011 reporting period).” Frazier continued, “Even though year to date performance of the new physical portion of the industry is down 5%, more than half of industry sales in this channel are still to be realized in the back four months of the year. Given the strong release schedule in the coming months, new physical retail sales could still be flat to slightly up once full year sales are tallied.” Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the seventh consecutive month in August with 308,000 units sold. NPD’s top-10 list of video game software title sales in the month of August follows below.

Rank Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC) Publisher 1 Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360, PS3, PC)** Square Enix Inc 2 NCAA Football 12 (360, PS3) Electronic Arts 3 Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzard 4 Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd (NDS, Wii, PS3) Disney Interactive Studios 5 Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC) Disney Interactive Studios 6 Just Dance Summer Party (Wii) Ubisoft 7 Just Dance 2 (Wii) Ubisoft 8 Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) Disney Interactive Studios 9 The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) Nintendo 10 Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3) Majesco