U.S. retail sales of video games, consoles and game accessories hit $1.12 billion in May, a 37 percent rise over the same month last year, driven by the chart-topping Grand Theft Auto video game, market researcher NPD Group reported Thursday.
Nintendo 's Wii console is still the top-selling hardware
unit, with 675,100 units sold in May. Nintendo's DS handheld
player took second with 452,600 units sold. Those units have
captured the top two spot's for four consecutive months.
Sony 's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360
trailed with 208,700 and 186,600 units sold, respectively.
Hardware sales rose 34 percent to $428.6 million, while
software sales rose 41 percent to $536.9 million, compared to
the same month last year, NPD reported.
Take-Two Interactive Corp's Grand Theft Auto continues to be
the No. 1 selling video game, and its version IV, released in
April, sold 871,300 units in May.
Sales year-to-date come to $6.6 billion and the industry is on
pace to bring in revenue between $21 billion and $23 billion
for 2008, NDP said.