Report: 2006 U.S. Video Game Sales Up 19% to $12.5

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2007 - 8:23am.

New York - Brisk hardware sales in December helped push total U.S. video game sales for 2006 up 19%, to $12.5 billion, according to sales data from market research firm NPD Group.

Holiday shoppers purchasing PlayStation 2s, Xbox 360s, Nintendo Wiis and DS handhelds drove December game hardware sales up 59%, to $1.6 billion, while game software sales totaled $1.1 billion for the month.

Despite all of the new consoles released in the fall, Sony's PlayStation 2 was December's top seller, moving 1.4 million units. Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 1.1 million units during the month, and Nintendo's Wii topped the PlayStation 3 among brand-new consoles with sales of 604,200 units, compared with 490,700 for the Sony console. To date, Nintendo has sold 1.1 million Wii consoles in the U.S., compared with sales of 687,000 PlayStation 3s from Sony.

Nintendo's DS handheld outsold all hardware during the month, with 1.6 million in sales; Sony's PSP sold 935,200 units.

The top-selling game in December was Microsoft's "Gears of War" (817,000 units), followed by Activision's "Guitar Hero" (805,200 units) and Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL 07" (727,100 units).