US Games Market Enjoys Record Year News

The NPD figures (which chart US console and game sales) are in for the whole of 2007, showing a 43% growth in the US games market over 2006's figures. Nintendo came away with the most overall console sales, shifting 8.5 million DS handheld systems and 6.29 million Wiis.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 4.62 million units while Sony's PlayStation 3 suffered a slightly embarrassing year following its November 2006 release. The PS3 (2.56 million unit sales) failed to outperform its last-gen predecessor, with the PS2 selling an impressive 3.97 million consoles (the PSP sold 3.82 million units).

There were, however, signs of a turnaround for the PS3 towards the end of the year as it pulled in 1.2 million unit sales between November 23rd and December 31st in the US.

As for games, Microsoft and Bungie's Halo 3 has enjoyed an incredible year, topping the all-format chart with 4.82 million copies of the game being sold since its September 25th release. The fact that Halo 3 was a single platform exclusive makes this achievement even more impressive.

To demonstrate just how impressive this is, consider the 2007 sales figures of the format straddling Call of Duty 4 (which sold the most games in the US during December). For the whole of 2007, CoD4 sold 3.04 million units in total, across the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.