Video game sales declined 6 percent in January, a market research firm said Friday, but overall sales improved on a per-week basis, with "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" proving to be the most popular title.
The NPD Group said total sales of hardware, software and accessories edged down to $1.18 billion from $1.25 billion in January 2007. The largest decline came from hardware sales, which fell 25 percent. Comparing sales on a weekly basis, however, NPD reported 18 percent growth.
For retailers, January 2008 was four weeks long, compared to five weeks in 2007.
Nintendo Co.'s Wii was the best-selling video game system, with 274,000 units sold in January. That was slightly more than the 269,000 Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 sold. Customers also bought 251,000 of Nintendo's portable DS and 230,000 PlayStation Portables, and NPD reported sales of 230,000 Microsoft Corp. Xbox 360s.
NPD said 330,900 units of the Xbox 360 version of "Call of Duty 4," from Activision Inc., were sold. The "Wii Play" sampler followed with 298,100 units sold.
The Wii edition of Activision's "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" marked 239,600 units sold, and 182,700 units of the Xbox 360 version were sold.
The Xbox version of "Call of Duty 4" logged 140,000 units in sales.
Electronic Arts Inc.'s top games were the special edition of "Rock Band," for the Xbox 360, and the racing game "Burnout Paradise." A total of 183,800 copies of "Rock Band" were sold, and 144,100 copies of "Burnout Paradise."
For Nintendo, the Wii game "Super Mario Galaxy" recorded 172,000 units in sales, while NPD tracked 138,500 units sold of "Mario Party" for the DS.
NPD reported 133,000 units of Sega's "Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games" for the DS.