Sales of new games, hardware, and accessories at physical retailers amounted to $593.3 million. That’s down 15 percent from $700.6 million in a similar period in 2012. Hardware was down 30 percent to only $142 million, while software sales dropped 10 percent to $296.1 million.
Financial analysis firm The NPD Group released its report for the second month of 2013, and the industry continues to shrink. Although it's important to note that these figures only track the sales of new physical games and not used or digitally downloaded titles.
The monthly sales drop are getting to be a familiar thing. While gaming continues to grow as a business, sales through digital distribution are growing while purchases at physical retail locations is falling.