The NPD is reporting that games industry sales dropped 11 percent to $2.55 billion in November year over year. Software, hardware and accessory sales all fell across the board compared to November 2011.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II was the best selling title for November at 7.5 million units sold. Halo 4 sold an impressive 3.2 million units, while Assassin’s Creed III saw 2.9 million in sales and Need for Speed: Most Wanted sold roughly a half million.
Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 managed a total of 1.26 million in sales for November after selling 750,000 during Black Friday, marking the 23rd consecutive month that Xbox 360 is the top selling console in the U.S. Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform in November (hardware, software and accessories) reached $1.2 billion, also tops among consoles in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Nintendo sold over 1.75 million total hardware units in November, led by the 3DS with 540,000, followed by the Wii U at 425,000. The Wii sold 420,000 units and the Nintendo DS sold more 370,000 units, bringing lifetime sales up to 40 million units and 53 million units.
New Super Mario Bros U for the Wii U sold more than 243,000 units and saw a console attach rate of nearly 60 percent. Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS reached 2 million units in lifetime sales, becoming the second game for that system to hit that milestone in the U.S.