Nintendo Co.'s DS hand-held players and Wii consoles led a 10 percent decline in U.S. video game hardware and software sales in August, according to market researcher NPD Group Inc.

Overall sales dropped to $818.9 million last month, with revenue from hardware falling 5 percent and game software dropping 14 percent, NPD said.

Sales of the touch screen DS slumped 38 percent to 342,700 players, while those of the Wii fell 12 percent to 244,300 consoles, the lowest since its debut in November 2006, the researcher said Thursday.