Japanese Software Units Grow In Third Quarter, UK Sees Biggest Declines

The game industry's three largest global markets combined for a decline of 6 percent in the calendar third quarter, says a new report that integrates metrics from the U.S.'s NPD group, UK's GfK Chart-Track, and Japan's Enterbrain. Notably, the quarter saw a rare positive growth trend for Japan. Third quarter Japanese software unit sales grew 15 percent compared to a 20 percent decline for the same period a year ago, reflecting a 7 percent boost for console software and a 19 percent boost for portable software unit sales. This was thanks in large part to the explosive success of Square Enix's Dragon Quest IX, the top-selling title overall across all three markets, despite only being available in Japan during the period in question. The quarter of strong performance hasn't been enough to offset the overall shrinkage of the Japanese market, however, which has declined 9 percent year-to-date. The prevailing wisdom is that the Japanese market is shrinking rapidly while Western markets dominate, but that has not been the case for the period of July through September. During the quarter, it was the UK that saw the largest drop in software sales, tumbling 19 percent collectively and registering drops in console and portable software of 24 and 12 percent, respectively. Year-to-date, the UK software market has slumped 13 percent. Unit sales also declined in the U.S. The country saw a 9 percent drop, with console and portable software unit sales declines of 8 percent and 14 percent, respectively. The U.S. market has declined 8 percent year to date.