Canadian Games Market Hits Record $1.66 Billion

New NPD Canada data has revealed that the Canadian games market saw a record C$2.09 billion ($1.66 billion) in revenues in 2008, with year over year growth of 23 percent for combined hardware, software and accessory sales. As with most territories across the world, the Wii dominated the home console hardware market, with 44.1 percent of overall sales (838,000 units), according to the report. This was followed by the Xbox 360 with 25.5 percent (485,000 units) and the PlayStation 3 with 21.7 percent (412,000 units). It's also possible to calculate total PlayStation 2 sales (165,000), as well as illuminate relative handheld sales for 2008 in Canada - with the Nintendo DS selling 918,000 units for the year in the region, and the PlayStation Portable 282,000. The top-selling Canadian game of the year was MTV Games’ Rock Band, which topped not only Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV, but also Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit. "We believe the Wii has really hit a great price point in the market," commented NPD’s Matthew Tattle regarding the news to Canadian outlet CBC News. "It's really expanded the user base. It's gone beyond the traditional gamer market."