Sponsored By

Canadian Games Market Up 22%

According to a new report, total revenues for the video games industry in Canada reached a record $933 million in 2006, with the DS Lite leading a 43 percent jump in hardware sales, and NHL 07 leading a 10 percent rise in software.

David Jenkins, Blogger

January 17, 2007

2 Min Read
Game Developer logo in a gray background | Game Developer

According to a report from the Canadian Press, total revenues for the video games industry in Canada reached a record $933 million in 2006, up by 22 percent on 2005. Hardware sales alone accounted for $349 million in revenues, up 43 percent from the previous year thanks to the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Wii. In total 1.62 million consoles were sold in 2006, up from 1.35 million in 2005. The Nintendo DS Lite was the best selling hardware of the year with 374,000 units sold. The second best selling console of the year was the PlayStation 2 with 327,000 units sold, then the Xbox 360 on 252,000 units, the Game Boy Advance at 237,000, the PSP at 176,500, the GameCube at 89,000, the Wii at 84,000, the PlayStation 3 at 45,000 and the Xbox at 32,000. The Wii outsold the old PlayStation 3 in November, but the situation was reversed in December with more stock of the PlayStation 3 being available than its rival. Software sales were put at $481 million for the year, up 10 percent from 2005. Accessories and peripherals were up 24 percent to just under $104 million. The best selling game of the year in Canada was the PlayStation 2 version of locally developer NHL 07 from Electronic Arts. In the top twenty of the year nine titles were for PlayStation formats, four the Nintendo DS, three for the Xbox 360 and one each for the Wii, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Xbox. The full list of the top ten selling games in Canada for 2006 are as follows:

Pos.

Title

Publisher

Format

1

NHL 07

EA

PS2

2

New Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo

DS

3

Gears of War

Microsoft

360

4

Final Fantasy XII

Square Enix

PS2

5

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Nintendo

Wii

6

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Rockstar

PS2

7

Super Mario 64 DS

Nintendo

DS

8

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Rockstar

PS2

9

Brain Age: Trust Your Brain

Nintendo

DS

10

Gran Turismo 4

Sony

PS2

About the Author

David Jenkins

Blogger

David Jenkins ([email protected]) is a freelance writer and journalist working in the UK. As well as being a regular news contributor to Gamasutra.com, he also writes for newsstand magazines Cube, Games TM and Edge, in addition to working for companies including BBC Worldwide, Disney, Amazon and Telewest.

Daily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inbox

You May Also Like