Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii was the best-selling console exclusive title of 2008 in the UK, according to ELSPA and Chart-Track data. The top five selling games of the year were all Wii exclusives, while EA’s FIFA 09 topped the list of multipla
Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii has been named the best-selling individual format game of 2008 in the UK. Official ELSPA/GFK Chart-Track data revealed by trade paper MCV credits Nintendo with driving sales during the year, along with multiformat publishers Activision Blizzard, Rockstar and LucasArts. The UK video games market as a whole recently reported a 23 percent rise in software sales in 2008, with total hardware and software revenues of £4.034 billion ($6.071bn) for the year. The same data also showed Nintendo registering almost 40 million software units sold across the Wii and Nintendo DS. Mario Kart Wii was released in April and has remained in the top ten ever since -– except when hit by frequent supply constraints. The game also enjoyed a four-week run at the number one spot in the individual platform chart over Christmas. The second best-selling individual platform game of 2008 was Wii Fit. Indeed, all top five selling games are Nintendo platform exclusives, with Wii Play at number three, Brain Training (aka Brain Age) for DS at number four (even though it released in June 2006) and Sega co-production Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for Wii at number five. The sixth best-seller was the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV, with the PlayStation 3 version at number seven. Next, the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: World at War came in at number eight, Take-Two’s Carnival Funfair Games on Wii (a common hardware bundle with the Wii console in the UK) at number nine, and the Xbox 360 version of FIFA 09 at number ten. The combined-platform version of the best-seller chart saw EA’s soccer sim at number one, with FIFA 09 also taking the official UK Christmas number one spot. Mario Kart Wii still managed to be the second best-selling game in the multiplatform chart, though, pushing Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV into third place. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (on both Wii and DS) was fourth and Wii Fit fifth. The sixth best selling multiplatform game was Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War, followed by Wii Play, Brain Training, LucasArts’ Lego Indiana Jones and Carnival Funfair Games.
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