Survey reveals boom in US gaming

...and good news for the big three

18 January 2008 13:43 GMT / By Katie Scott

What was hot and what was not in the gaming world last year has been revealed by the latest report by international market research firm, NPD.

The report concentrates on the US and has good news for all three of the biggest players - Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony.

And they have all released statements blowing their own trumpets - Nintendo has focusing on the number of units sold, Microsoft concentrates on the total amount of money that gamers have spent, while Sony says its own sales were up significantly.

But here's the key facts, which give an interesting overall idea of what US gamers are spending their pocket money on.

Nintendo had the two best-selling platforms in the US last year - the DS sold 8.5 million units, while the Wii sold 6.3 million.

The survey also reveals that 52% of all videogame hardware sold, and half of the top 30 best-selling software titles, were made for Nintendo consoles.

However, it was the Xbox 360 that won more consumer spend than any other console at $4.8 billion. This is compared to $3.5 billion on the Wii and $2.2 billion on the PS3.

The Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 by an average of 2-to-1 since the PS3's launch in 2006.

But despite this, for Sony, it was rising sales of the PS3 that it was most proud of, with unit sales hitting 798,000 in December.

And if the format war keeps on going Blu-ray's way - sales could continue to rise, say online reports.

Of the games, Halo 3 was at the top of the list with 4.8 million copies sold since its launch in September.

For December, it was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that was most popular selling 1.47 million units.

Close behind was Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii at 1.4 million copies, followed by Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the PS2 at 1.25 million.

Overall - the year's total sales (excluding PC games) saw a 43% increase over 2006 to reach $17.94 billion.