Video game sales down for 7th straight month

NEW YORK — A new report says U.S. retail sales of videogame hardware, software and accessories fell for a seventh consecutive month.

Sales declined 29 percent in June to $700 million.

Sales of console and portable software — the video games themselves — fell 29 percent from a year earlier to $329 million. Sales of hardware fell 45 percent to $201 million. That was offset partly by a 4 percent increase in sales of accessories, to $170 million.

Thursday’s report by NPD Group tracks sales of new physical products — about 50 percent to 60 percent of the total spending. Excluded are sales of used games and rentals as well as digital and social-network spending.

The top-selling game was “Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes,” from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Interactive.