Game unit sales rise in U.S. and U.K., but Japan declines

A joint report by three market researchers shows that video game unit sales rose in the U.S. and United Kingdom in 2008, but fell in Japan.

The report — produced by the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain — showed that video game software unit sales in the U.K. actually grew fastest by 26 percent, while unit sales in the U.S. rose just 15 percent and declined 13 percent in Japan. The latter drop can be pegged to the decline in overall portable software sales. Collectively, unit sales jumped 11 percent to 409.9 million games from 367.7 million games in 2007. The report did not include exact dollar figures on this count.

Japan also suffered due to shrinking PlayStation 2 software sales, which were down on a unit basis 46 percent, according to Enterbrain. DS software sales were also down slightly in Japan in 2008. Even so, the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 saw sales increases in Japan. Highly anticipated titles there this year include Dragon Quest IX for the DS as well as Monster Hunter 3 and Final Fantasy XIII.

Console software sales grew 38 percent in the U.K., while portable game sales increased 6 percent, according to GfK Chart-Track Ltd. In the U.S., console sales grew 22 percent and portable software went up 2 percent, according to the NPD Group. All told, U.S. unit software sales totaled 268.4 million units. U.K. software unit sales are double what they were in 2003. Thanks to its gains, the U.K. is now the No. 2 market, surpassing Japan behind the U.S.

Across the three markets, the top selling game was Mario Kart for the Wii at 8.94 million units. Second place went to the Wii Fit at 8.31 million units. Grand Theft Auto IV sold 7.29 million units, Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold 6.32 million units and Call of Duty World at War sold 5.89 million units.