The summer lull is as evident as ever on the games industry, with June’s retails sales of hardware, software and accessories down by 6% compared to the same time last year. Microsoft’s introduction of the new Xbox 360 250GB has seen sales of the console bounce by 88% (to 452,000 units) compared to last year though.

'Red Dead Redemption' for the Xbox 360 was June's best-selling title

These US-based figures (in which total games industry sales were said amounted to $1.1 billion) from market research giants, NPD Group show that game software took the biggest tumble, falling by 15% to  $531.3 million. Hardware sales climbed 5% to $401.7 million.

NPD Analyst Anita Frazier told Reuters that the Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 saw unit sales increase notably from a year earlier. Although Nintendo’s handheld DS was the month’s best-selling game system, the Xbox 360 surpassed Nintendo‘s Wii with the number of units sold.

June was unusual in that software sales fell while hardware sales increased, said Jesse Divnich, an analyst with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. Last month’s discrepancy, he added, could have resulted from people replacing older consoles with new ones, as in all those Xbox nuts out there. The question now though is will these figures hold for the new, quiet as a mouse Xbox 360?

Games sales wise, here’s the top ten:

1. Red Dead Redemption, Xbox 360, Take-Two

2. Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii, Nintendo

3. Red Dead Redemption, PS3, Take-Two

4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii, Nintendo

5. Just Dance, Wii, Ubisoft

6. Wii Fit Plus, Wii, Nintendo

7. Toy Story 3, Nintendo DS, Disney Interactive

8. UFC 2010: Undisputed, Xbox 360, THQ

9. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Wii, Warner Bros.

10. UFC 2010: Undisputed, PS3, THQ