According to the latest statistics released by the Market research firm NPD Group, there appears no respite in sight for the sluggish sales in the videogame industry, which witnessed a 26 percent plunge in sales during April – marking the market’s sharpest sales drop since July 2009.

Going by the NPD data, the year-on-year US sales of videogame hardware, software and accessories for April dropped from the same month last year figures of $1.03 billion to $766.2 million this year; partly because no new games were launched during the month and partly because the Easter holiday fell in March this year.

According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, the April sales plunge was the videogame industry’s fourth-largest year-on-year percentage decline ever; largely contributed by plunging sales of portable handheld consoles.

Moreover, saying that the sales of the Nintendo Wii also declined, while both Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 reported sales increase during April, Frazier added: “The portable side of the industry contributed more than its fair share to the industry decline” – with Nintendo DS and Sony PSP accounting for nearly 61 percent of the month’s total video game sales decline.

NPD statistics further revealed that software sales in the month of April dropped 22 percent to $398.5 million – thereby marking a conspicuously bigger fall than the 5 percent plunge estimated by analysts.