Mario Kart Wii tops global games chart for 2008

UK overtakes Japan in world gaming market

4 February 2009 1:35 GMT / By Verity Burns

Global sales data has shown that Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii was the biggest selling game across the world in 2008, selling nearly 9 million games across the UK, US and Japanese markets.

This data has been compiled from a collaboration between GfK Chart-Track, NPD in the US and Enterbrain in Japan.

Another Nintendo homegrown, Wii Fit, came in a close second with 8.31 million sales, and was followed by GTA IV, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Call of Duty: World at War to round off the top five.

In particular, COD: World at War did well to hit fifth place in the global chart, as no release in Japan meant it relied on its US and UK sales alone to fire it up the chart.

All in all, the global sales data shows good news for the games industry. Although Japan game sales saw a drop of 13% in 2008, average sales across all regions were up 11% on 2007, and it was the UK that led the way with a 26% increase.

GfK Chart-Track's Dorian Bloch said: "Because of this amazing growth and coupled with the downturn currently being experienced in Japan, the UK market has for the first time overtaken Japan as the number two world market".

Full tags

Gaming, Game charts, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo, Stats