May 2011 was the lowest month of sales for the games industry since October of 2006, report the NPD Group. Total video game sales declined 13% compared to May 2010. This owes primarily to a light nrelease schedule for the month, with only 42 new SKUs being brought to market, as opposed to 58 in May 2010.
The light release list caused a decline of 19% in the video game software category. Meanwhile, hardware and accessories declined by 5% and 6% respectively. The upside to the recorded decline in sales, however, is that the NPD don’t track digital sales (yet), which means popular digital releases like the recent Call of Duty: Black Ops “Escalation” map pack don’t contribute toward their sales figure.
Digital purchases, they note, are becoming increasingly more common.
The top-selling platform for the month was the Xbox 360. Nintendo 3DS sales were "light," but the NPD note that, beginning with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D’s release on June 19th, the 3DS will start to see a slate of strong content that will boost its sales for the remainder of the year.
The top-10 software sales chart for the month of May in the U.S. is as follows:
| Rank | Title | System | Publisher |
| 01. | L.A. Noire | PS3, 360 | Take Two |
| 02. | Brink | PS3, 360, PC | Bethesda Softworks |
| 03. | Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game | PS3, 360, PC, 3DS, Wii, DS, PSP | Lucasarts |
| 04. | Portal 2 | PS3, 360, PC, | Electronic Arts |
| 05. | Mortal Kombat | PS3, 360 | Warner Bros. |
| 06. | Call of Duty: Black Ops | PS3, 360, PC, Wii, DS | Activision |
| 07. | Zumba Fitness: Join the Party | PS3, 360, Wii | Majesco |
| 08. | NBA 2K11 | PS3, 360, PC, Wii, PSP, PS2 | Take Two |
| 09. | Just Dance 2 | Wii | Ubisoft |
| 10. | Lego Star Ware III: The Clone Wars | PS3, 360, PC, 3DS, Wii, DS, PSP | Lucasarts |
