Latest US Game Sales Figures – Business Booms

North American combined hardware and software sales increased by a whopping 73 per cent in October according to the latest NPD sales data just in, with total sales of $1.1 billion (£0.53bn), compared with a ‘meagre’ $643 million (£315mn) for the same month last year.

Nintendo's Wii continues to steam ahead in the hardware sales stakes, with 519,000 consoles sold during October, nudging considerably ahead of the 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles and 121,000 PlayStation 3 consoles sold in the same month.

In Japan, meanwhile, PS3 sales have just edged ahead of Wii sales for the first time in the history of humankind.

So, the US videogame industry has already racked up $10.5 billion (£5.1bn) in revenue up to the end of October, with the biggest sales months of November and December still to generate yet more mountains of dollar bills.

Here are the best selling games on all platforms for the year to date in the US:

Halo 3 - 3,700,000
Madden NFL 08 - 3,200,000
Guitar Hero II - 2,800,00
Wii Play (w/ Remote) - 2,500,000
Pokemon Diamond - 2,100,000
Pokemon Pearl - 1,500,000
Spider-Man 3 - 1,400,000
Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock - 1,400,000

Anita Frazier from the NPD Group says that, "This year sales have already achieved the annual sales number for 2005 - and the two biggest months are yet to come. I think we'll see not only record-breaking revenues but record-breaking year-over-year growth when the final numbers are tallied".

Time for some really decent Christmas freebies for all the consumers then says SPOnG. The drinks are on the industry!

Unless the European game industry pleads poor in order to get out of getting the round in.

^{source: NPD Group}