Based on an online survey of 8,831 individuals, The NPD Group found that 29 percent were free and mobile gamers, up 2 percent from last year.

A group described as "Avoid Omni Gamers" (frequent gamers who play on multiple systems) was the only other segment to experience growth, increasing "slightly" to represent 16 percent of total gamer population in the US.

Remaining segments Casual Gamer, Core Console Gamer, Family Gamer, and Social Gamer either decreased or remained unchanged for the year.

"Growth among both the Free & Mobile Gamer and Avid Omni Gamer segments speaks to the different types of gamer personalities, the type of experiences they are looking for and the growing opportunities provided by different gaming capable devices," NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement.

The report also found that Core Console Gamers report playing on the most systems--an average of five--with the Xbox 360 being the most popular. In addition, this group spends more money across physical and digital games compared to other groups, according to the report.

From: www.gamespot.com

Rounding out the top five performers for the month were .

Overall, industry sales slid by 25 percent to $495.2 million. However, NPD analyst Liam Callahan points out that the sales figures make up only about half of the total consumer spend for the month.

"When taking into account our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in April such as used and rentals at $76 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and the consumer spend on social network games at $267 million, the total consumer spend in April is $802 million," he said.

In addition, Callahan pointed out that the Easter holiday typically accounts for a 10 percent boost in sales for the month. Since Easter fell in March this year and in April last year, a direct comparison is "difficult," he said.

Regarding hardware, total sales plummeted by 42 percent to $109.5 million. Microsoft was again the market leader, selling 130,000 Xbox 360 units in the month, . Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform (hardware, software, and accessories) was $208 million.

Sony has not divulged PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita sales information for the month, while Nintendo , some 20,000 fewer than the 75,000 Wii systems in the period.

As for software, this category decreased 17 percent in April to $267.8 million in April. Though the overall sector declined year-over-year, sales of April 2013 titles posted positive figures over April 2012, which was .

"Despite overall declines, April title launches in 2013 fared better than games that launched in April 2012, up 118 percent in unit sales and 130 percent in dollar sales," Callahan said. "This increase was driven by games like Injustice: Gods Among Us, Dead Island: Riptide, and Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins."

Separately, Nintendo announced that it has sold 2.1 million first-party 3DS games through the first four months of the year, up 52 percent over last year.

"In 2012, it took 30 weeks for Nintendo 3DS to sell 2 million units of first-party software. In 2013, the platform accomplished that same feat in 18 weeks," Nintendo said.

Nintendo said sold 140,000 units in the month (physical and digital), boosting its life-to-date total to 530,000 units.

The only Wii U title Nintendo revealed sales statistics for was , which has now sold nearly 770,000 combined physical and digital units to date.

Shifting to accessories, this sector fell 19 percent to $131.4 million for April 2013.

"Though every accessory type experienced year-over-year declines in April 2013, year-to-date trending increased by over 20 percent for the combined sales of point cards, headsets/headphones, and All Other Accessories (which includes Skylanders)," Callahan said.

APRIL US GAME SALES (April 7-May 4, 2013)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES

Total retail sales: $495.2 million (-25%)
Non-PC hardware: $109.5 million (-42%)
Non-PC software: $254.3 (-17%)
Accessories: $131.4 (19%)
Total software: $267.8 million (-17%)

TOP 10 GAMES FOR APRIL 2013
Title (Platforms) - Publisher

1. Injustice: Gods Among Us (X360, PS3, Wii U) - Warner Bros.
2. Dead Island: Riptide (X360, PS3, PC) - Deep Silver
3. BioShock: Infinite (X360, PS3, PC) - Take-Two
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (X360, PS3, PC, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
5. Defiance - (X360, PS3, PC) - Trion Worlds
6. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) - Nintendo
7. NBA 2K13 (X360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
8. Skylanders Giants (Wii, X360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
9. Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (3DS) - Nintendo
10. MLB 13: The Show (PS3, PS Vita) - Sony

From: www.gamespot.com

The report also found an increase in the number of hours spent playing games across devices surveyed, which led to an overall increase in the number of hours played per week, up 9 percent for gaming overall and up 6 percent for online gaming.

"Besides the size of the gaming audience and sales performance, one of the key metrics for the industry to watch is the time gamers spend playing games," said NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan in a statement. "This study found that the overall amount of time spent gaming, and time spent gaming online increased across virtually every type of device, and notably so, versus 2012."

The PC ranks as the top platform for online gaming, with 68 percent of US gamers saying they play online through their computers. This figure is down 4 percent year-over-year. Online gaming through mobile devices, however, is growing. The study found mobile devices saw a 12 percent increase in online gaming year-over-year.

In terms of buying behavior, it would seem logical that online gamers would prefer digital content over physical content, but this was not the case, according to the report. Asked if players would prefer purchasing a game in physical format or digital format, where pricing and availability were consistent, 62 percent chose the physical format.

"While many gamers prefer games in the physical format, the increased availability of digital content paired with a greater amount of connected devices has driven an increase in the number of consumers going online to access the content they want," Callahan said.

The Online Gaming 2013 report was conducted through an online survey fielded from February 15 through March 4. The survey was completed by 8,867 individuals ages 2 and older.

Online gaming has been a focal point of discussion for next-generation consoles. Both the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox are believed to be Internet-focused, while Microsoft's platform is rumored to .

Separately, Nintendo announced last week that .

From: www.gamespot.com

Rounding out the month's top five titles were . Of note, all top ten titles for March were sequels.

NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan explained in a statement that the $992.5 million in total sales equals only about half of the true market spend for the month.

"When you consider our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in March such as used and rentals at $190 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps, and the consumer spend on social network games at $670 million, we would estimate the total consumer spend in March to be just under $1.9 billion," Callahan said.

Hardware suffered in March, with "deep declines" of 32 percent in dollar spend, with stronger downturns for portable hardware than for traditional consoles. The Nintendo 3DS was an anomaly, with sales for the platform growing 9 percent year-over-year.

The NPD Group does not disclose specific console sales data, but Microsoft announced today that the and was the top-performer for the period. Sony and Nintendo have not made any sales data available.

Software sales in March 2013 across consoles, portables, and PC were up 2 percent, the first month of positive growth since November 2011.

"The performance of new launches was a major driver of the overall software growth for this month, with games launching in March 2013 selling over 40 percent more units than new launches in March 2012. There were positive trends for new launches that were seen across consoles, portables, and PC."

Callahan explained that March 2013 saw 20 percent fewer new releases, but these games generated nearly 70 percent more dollar sales per SKU than last year.

"With solid performances of new games like , 3DS software sales increased over 50 percent from last March."

March was a positive month for publisher Take-Two, as the strength of BioShock Infinite combined with continued sales of helped the publisher achieve the highest sales for an individual company since the NPD Group began tracking retail sales in 1995.

"Two strong launches for the month included Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite, which were the highest first month sales for games in these franchises," Callahan said.

Switching to accessories, this sector was flat in dollar sales during March 2013, coming in at $216.1 million.

"While accessory spending was flat in dollar sales, continued strength of Skylanders, point cards, and headsets/ headphones resulted in a 15 percent growth in unit sales for March 2013 over March 2012," Callahan said.

MARCH US GAME SALES (March 3-April 6, 2013)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES

Total retail sales: $992.5 million (-10%)
Non-PC hardware: $221.6 million (-32%)
Non-PC software: $554.8 (-1%)
Accessories: $216.1 (0%)
Total software: $602.4 million (2%)

TOP 10 GAMES FOR MARCH 2013
Title (Platforms) - Publisher

1. BioShock Infinite (X360, PS3, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
2. Tomb Raider (X360, PS3) - Square Enix
3. Gears of War: Judgment (X360) - Microsoft
4. God of War: Ascension (PS3) Sony
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (X360, PS3, PC, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
6. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) - Nintendo
7. MLB13: The Show (PS3, PS Vita) - Sony
8. NBA 2K13 (X360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
9. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (X360, PS3, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
10. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (X360, PS3) - Namco Bandai Games

From: www.gamespot.com