Physical Game Sales drop in 2011

With the economy going down, and digital sales increasing, physical sales for games has been declining. People expected December to be the month, to have the most sales but compared to previous years, less were sold. “I had expected December sales to represent a larger portion of total year sales than what occurred,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. Retail sales of new physical game contents went down 8% from 2010’s $10.1 billion to 2011’s 9.3 billion dollars. For the December of 2011, retail sales for console and portable games went down 14% from $2.37 billion in 2010 to $2.04 billion in 2011.

Retail sales of hardware dropped down 11% from 2010’s $6.29 billion, to 2011’s $5.58 billion. December 2011 contributed $1.32 billion to that total, which was a 28% drop in sales from December 2010’s $1.84 billion. “Hardware was particularly hard hit in December,” said Frazier. “Normally, we see sales increase from November to December on an average sales per week basis. The 3DS and the DS were the only platforms to realize a unit sales increase versus November, which is highly unusual since typically all platforms enjoy a lift in the biggest month at retail.” It’s a shock to see such a big drop in sales but it is understandable as it is a hard time, and digital sales are becoming more popular and convenient.

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