The NPD Group has released its "Q1 2011 Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend" report, estimating the video game industry has reached a total of $5.9 billion in total spending on all hardware, content, and accessories.

According to the report, $2.03 billion was spent throughout the U.S. market on "new physical video and PC game software" within the first quarter. However, the report also points to an estimated $1.85 spent via "other monetization methods, including used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile games."

Though the industry saw a solid quarter, new physical retail sales are still on a decline. In late 2010, the NPD Group noted that even accounting for digital distribution and social games, overall industry revenues still don't show growth.

It is unclear how the NPD Group comes to its total for "other monetization methods" and whether or not the company includes estimates for Valve's Steam platform, which has decided against sharing sales data with the NPD.

The estimated $5.9 billion spending within the first quarter puts the industry ahead of the same reported period in 2010 by 1.5 percent; an increase of $1.85 billion.