Video game sales have soared yet again this year, with Nintendo’s games and systems leading the pack in the US. Research has shown that retail sales of video games managed a phenomenal 57% jump to $1.7 billion in March, according to market researcher NPD Group. Judging by the sales figures, one could safely be forgiven to think that the US economy is nowhere under distress despite being otherwise in real life. I suppose more folks decided that spending more time at home trying to complete the latest game they purchased is way more cost effective than spending a night out - after all, a $59.90 game might last you for weeks on end as you subsist on TV meals, while going out on a date will easily cost you more than that amount in a single night.

Video game software sales actually managed to increase by 63% from March 2007 to $945.6 million, going way beyond analysts’ expectations which were predictably cautious, considering the current economic climate in the US. In March, the best selling game was Super Smash Bros: Brawl for the Wii, moving a whopping 2.7 million units. In a distant second place was Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 from Ubisoft that sold a respectable 752,300 units while Army of Two from Electronic Arts Inc. moved 606,100 units.

Hardware sales managed to grow 46% to $551.3 million from $377.9 million, and it is pretty obvious that Nintendo’s Wii and DS Lite did far better than all the other systems, with both of them grabbing 58% of the game hardware market in March as Wii shortages start to ease. It would be interesting to see how Microsoft’s Xbox 360 fares in May though as GTA IV is released for that platform at the end of this month.

Source: Associated Press

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