Video game sales down except for DS, 3DS

Nintendo’s handheld platforms were the only systems to see a sales increase last month.

NPD Group’s monthly numbers for July have been released, and they found that total revenue from video game hardware decreased by 32% from July 2011.

However, for the Nintendo 3DS, it was a positive story. NPD said that was the only platform to see a year-over-years sales increase.

And when you compared to last month, the 3DS also saw a jump over June 2012. The Nintendo DS also grew from two months ago, but every other platform saw sinking sales from June to July.

As for the top-selling games, EA’s NCAA Football 13 took the top spot. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes was the second best-selling game, and The Amazing Spider-Man came in third.

Just Dance 3 and Batman: Arkham City rounded out the top three, respectively.

Yesterday, NPD pointed out that although the overall sales numbers for the industry may be down, digital game sales are strong.

NPD’s Anita Frazier also noted that Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure continued to generate strong sales of its line of physical toys. “Between the characters that are packaged with the Skylanders game and the sales of the separate character packs, over 25 million individual Skylanders figures have been sold through at retail in the U.S. since the launch of the game in October 2011,” she said.