U.S. Game Industry Sales Up 21%

Author: by Staff

The NPD group has released its Funworld data for the month of April, which indicates a 21% increase for the industry as a whole last month. Despite a console transition year sales have been brisk, with portable sales being a key driving factor. Portable consoles accounted for 19% of overall sales, with portable software making up an additional 13%. Overall, handheld software sales were up an astonishing 79% last month. The top seller by unit sales was Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, which sold more than 397,000 copies on the Xbox and PS2. Doom 3 on the Xbox sold a combined 385,000 units between the regular and collector's editions and netted the second spot, and God of War took the third spot for the PS2, with 182,000 units in sales last month. Predominantly Xbox titles rounded out the rest of the top ten. Despite forecasts for even greater growth, analysts consider the numbers good news as they reflect widespread health across the industry and an increase in the number of consumers participating in the gaming pastime. Year-to-date sales are already approaching $3 billion, pleasing forecasters who feared that the console transition year would lead to softening sales.