June NPD Numbers Show a 10% Drop In Game Sales

The June NPD sales numbers for the United States were recently released. As the LA Times points out overall sales volume for the month were down 10% from the same time last year. Across all platforms the games industry generated $1.15 billion in sales during June. Even if summer sales lagged behind last year's numbers one has to remember that the summer isn't usually a time for big releases. Often sales dip in the summer months and then accelerate at a fast pace during the fall months.

The top ten featured many multiplatform releases available on the Xbox 360 including L.A Noire, Duke Nukem Forever and Mortal Kombat. It is great to see L.A Noir capture the number one spot after two months on store shelves. Duke Nukem Forever in second place could also be considered an accomplishment given that the game has a metascore of less than 50% for the Xbox 360 version. Sadly no exclusive Xbox 360 titles made the charts this month.

The NPD Group no longer provides a lifetime sales number for each game. Instead they combine the total sales from all platform releases and then generate a single top ten list. We've included the most recent estimates for Xbox 360 games that appear on the chart.

Did you buy any of the games that appear in the top 10 last month? If so let us know in the comment section. We would love to know what you thought about L.A Noire, Duke Nukem Forever or Mortal Kombat.

1. L.A. Noire – 419,000 units
2. Duke Nukem Forever – 376,000 units
3. Infamous 2
4. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: the Video Game
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops
7. NBA 2K11
8. Mortal Kombat 2011- 850,000 units (total sold)
9. Cars 2
10. Just Dance 2