Although John Madden doesn't play pro ball anymore, the Electronic Arts game, Madden NFL 09, was the No.1 pick in video games in August, according to research released Friday.
Despite its popularity, the game wasn't strong enough to offset sagging U.S. video game sales which had the smallest monthly sales increase in more than two years.
In August, U.S. sales of video game hardware, software, and accessories totaled $1.08 billion, with software sales increasing 13 percent and hardware sales rising 3 percent, markert researcher NPD Group said. The figures translate into a gain of 9 percent compared to the same period a year ago. In spite of the gain, the increase marked the first time in 27 months that sales were below 10 percent.
In addition to Madden NFL 09, other top selling games included Wii Fit, Soulcalibur IV, Too Human and Guitar Hero: On Tour.
In hardware sales, the Xbox 360 bested Sony's PlayStaion 3 in August, selling 195,200 Xbox 360s versus 185,400 PS3 consoles in the U.S. Nintendo's Wii outsold both systems combined, totaling 453,000 units sold in August.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier projects that hardware sales will continue to climb thanks in part to Microsoft's announcement last week that it is cutting prices for its Xbox 360 game console. An entry-level Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard drive, will retail for $199.
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