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

Rounding out the top five behind Dead Space 3 and Black Ops II were was the sixth best-selling title during February in the US. The full top ten list is below.

Overall, industry sales for the month slid 25 percent to $810 million. According to NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan, however, these sales represent only 50 percent of the total market.

"These sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories, which account for roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games," Callahan said in a statement. " When you consider our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in February such as used and rentals at $90 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 $319 million, we would estimate the total consumer spend in February to be just under $1.2 billion."

Total software sales for February dove 27 percent to $369.9 million. Callahan explained that though there was the same number of February launches this year that made it to the top ten list as there were last year, these titles performed far worse. Unit sales were down 30 percent, he said.

In addition, Callahan said the .

"When combining the dollar value of Skylanders software as well as accessories, this property has generated over $600 million in the U.S. since launching in October 2011, and sold $35 million in this month alone," he said. "It will be interesting to watch how this dynamic of physical goods delivering digital content evolves with the launch of Disney Infinity later this year."

Hardware fared the worst in February, diving some 36 percent to $244.2 million. Despite this year-over-year downturn, Callahan some platforms, like the Wii U and PlayStation Vita, showed signs of life.

"Looking at hardware sales on an average per week basis, all platforms showed an increase from January into February. Specifically, new platforms like the Wii U and PS Vita demonstrated some momentum from the typical January hardware lull with increases of over 40 percent and 30 percent respectively," he said.

Microsoft was the only hardware maker to announce sales data for the month, earlier today trumpeting an during the period.

As for accessories, this category was down 3 percent year-over-year to $213.9 million. But again, Activision's Skylanders series was a bright spot.

"Skylanders' success so far this year was driven by strong growth seen in the single character packs for Skylanders Giants which have a favorable comparison to sales of the single character packs for the first Skylanders," Callahan said.

FEBRUARY US GAME SALES (February 3-March 2, 2013)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total retail sales: $810.0 million (-25%)
Non-PC hardware: $244.2 million (-36%)
Non-PC software: $352.0 (-27%)
Accessories: $213.9 million (-3%)
Total software: $369.9 billion (-27%)

TOP 10 GAMES FOR FEBRUARY 2012

Title (Platforms) - Publisher
1. Dead Space 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (X360, PS3, Wii U, PC) - Activision Blizzard
3. Crysis 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts
4. NBA 2K13 (X360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
5. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3, X360) - Konami
6. Aliens: Colonial Marines (X360, PS3, PC) - Sega
7. Just Dance 4 (Wii, X360, PS3, Wii U) - Ubisoft
8. Far Cry 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Ubisoft
9. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3, PS Vita) - Sony
10. Madden NFL 13 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita, Wii U) - Electronic Arts

From: www.gamespot.com