The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Enterbrain have once again released a top global markets report, which combines their sales tracking data to paint a more accurate picture of the global video game industry. The report looked at the data from the U.S., the U.K. and Japan and revealed an overall software sales drop of eight percent when combining these three biggest video game markets.
Activision's Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was easily the best-selling title at retail across the three regions, totaling 11.86 million unit sales. It was Nintendo that rounded out the top five, however, as Wii Sports Resort sold 7.57 million copies, followed by New Super Mario Bros. Wii (7.41 million), Wii Fit Plus (5.8 million), and Wii Fit (5.44 million).
Aside from a down economy, one of the big reasons for the global software sales decline was the PS2. The aging console saw its software sale drop 56% in the U.S., 67% in the U.K. and 55% in Japan.
Interestingly, in the U.S. market, although unit sales were down in 2009, the overall trend shows the volume of games being released growing every year. "Looking at software sales performance, video game software unit sales declined seven percent for all of 2009. Still, while year-over-year comparisons show declines, the industry is still boasting significant volumes that were unseen before 2008,” said NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier. “With the huge investment needed to produce software for this generation’s consoles, many publishers talk about releasing fewer titles each year, which will allow their teams to better focus on maximizing the success of each title. The theory is that this will produce more high- quality games resulting in better sales. However, the year-end data from 2009 shows us that the number of titles entering the market is still growing with 778 new titles released in 2009, up from the 764 in 2008."
She continued, "So, while there has been no noticeable slow down in the number of titles launched each year, we do see some evidence of a converse relationship between the number of titles launched and the average unit sales of a title. When looking back at the past seven years, we see that 2004 had the lowest number of titles launched, yet the highest average unit sales. On the other hand, 2009 had the most titles launched and average unit sales were lower than they’ve been since 2005.”
