According to the most recent statistics revealed by the NPD Group on Thursday, the struggling video games industry reported a 7.6 percent plunge in the sales of video game hardware and software in the US during November.

The November sales’ figures, which included the Black Friday post-Thanksgiving weekend, were below the analysts’ expectations. Overall, sales across the entire video game industry fell to $2.7 billion in November, as against the year-before figures of $2.92 billion.

As per the NPD data, the hardware sales dropped 13.4 percent during the month, while the software sales fell 3.1 percent.

However, noting that November 2008 was “an incredible year” for the video games industry, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a research report that in spite of the notable November drop in sales, the month still happened to be the second-best November thus far!

In terms of specific November sales for leading console makers, Nintendo’s Wii still led its rivals in console sales, selling 1.26 million units. Following Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 managed a solid second ranking with its sale of 819,500 units. Sony’s PlayStation 3 stood in the third place with 710,400 consoles sold during the month.

NOD said that the best-selling game in November was “Call of Duty,” which sold over 6 million units on the Xbox and PS3; and Nintendo’s “New Super Mario Bros. Wii” also sold well.