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We can finally talk about NPD Group’s real report on video game sales for 2006. In the US, the game industry raked in $12.5 billion (that’s frickin’ beeelion), a $2 billion increase over 2005 sales. Add another billion to include PC game sales as well. December sales were a major factor with hardware making up nearly half of the month’s $3.7 billion in sales. Annual hardware sales were up 42.8 percent over 2005, likely due to the two new consoles, and software sales increased 6.4 percent.

For consoles, PS2s sold the most with 1.4 million in December (37.1 million overall),  while Xbox 360s sold 1.1 million (4.5 million overall), the Wii sold 1.1 million and the PS3 sold 687,300. For handhelds, the DS won holiday sales with 1.6 million sold in December 2006, PSP with 953,200 and, the li’l system that keeps on kickin’, the Game Boy Advance (GBA) with 850,700.

According to NPD, the top ten games sold in 200 were:

• Madden NFL 07 (PS2, 2.8 million)
• New Super Mario Bros. (DS, 2.0)
• Gears of War (X360, 1.8)
• Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2, 1.7)
• Guitar Hero 2 (PS2, 1.3)
• Final Fantasy XII (PS2, 1.3)
• Brain Age: Train Your Brain (DS, 1.1)
• Madden NFL 07 (X360, 1.1)
• Tom Clancy’s G.R.A.W. (X360, 1.0)
• NCAA Football 07 (PS2, 1.0)

The top accessories included the wireless controllers for each system (Xbox 360, Wii and PS3), PS2 memory cards and PS2 controllers. Top PC games included Madden NFL, Cars and one of my favorite fun-time games, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy.

Read, Read [GameDailyBiz] Site [NPD Group]

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