According to The NPD Group’s monthly U.S. sales report, Electronic Arts’ Dead Space 3 was the best-selling video game in February 2013, pushing Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II into second place. EA’s Crysis 3 landed in third in the top ten, follwed by NBA 2K13, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and the poorly-reviewed Aliens: Colonial Marines in 6th.
Overall, new retail software sales (including PC) came in at $369.9, a drop of 27% year-over-year.
On the hardware side, NPD noted that all consoles saw an increase in sales between January and February, with the Wii U and Vita shooting up 40% and 30% respectively. Exact hardware numbers for each system were not revealed as part of the report, however, estimates (via NeoGAF) place the Wii U in the neighborhood of 64K (up from 57K in January), but “way under” 80K according to Kevin Dent. On the flip side, combined Nintendo hardware sales (Wii U, Wii, 3DS, and DS) totaled 455K units, with Dent claiming 3DS sales were “way up“.
[Update] Wii U sales in the U.S. are confirmed to have been 66K for February 2013. PlayStation 3 sales totaled 263K.
Sales data for Sony’s systems were not made public by NPD, but Microsoft was quick to report that the Xbox 360 was once again the top selling system in the U.S., with 302K units sold during February 2013. Despite their number one position, this represents a 29% decrease year-over-year.
Combined sales of new hardware at retailers totaled $244.2 million during February 2013, which represents a 36% year-over-year decline. Accessory sales fell just 3% to $213.9 million.
Total dollars spent on new retail video game sales in February came to $810 million, down 25% from February 2012. NPD estimates that the used video game market and rentals totaled $90 million, while digital distribution and subscriptions came to $319 million. This would bring total video game spending to just over $1.2 billion for the month.
NPD‘s top 10 new retail software sales chart for February 2013 reads as follows:
1. Dead Space 3 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, Wii U PC) Activision Blizzard
3. Crysis 3 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
4. NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) Take-Two Interactive
5. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3, 360) Konami
6. Aliens: Colonial Marines 2013 (360, PS3, PC) Sega
7. Just Dance 4 (Wii, 360, PS3, Wii U) Ubisoft
8. Far Cry 3 (360, PS3, PC) Ubisoft
9. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3, PSV) Sony
10. Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, Wii U) Electronic Arts
