Global games decline measured at 8%

The world’s three biggest retail markets for video games saw a combined decline of eight per cent in sales last year according to a new report.

A new Top Global Markets report from NPD, GfK-ChartTrack and Famitsu – which integrates data from USA, UK and Japan – shows the downtown for 2009.

According to the data, the decline was more modest in Japan which experienced a two per cent drop in software units (five per cent decline in console software and a one per cent decline in portable game software).

The United States and UK saw respective declines of seven per cent and 14 per cent.

In the USA, console and portable software experienced respective declines of seven per cent and eight per cent, while UK units saw respective declines of six per cent and 25 per cent.

The three data agencies pointed to the decline in the PS2 software as the primary reason for the downturn. PS2 software sales saw a 57 per cent decrease across the top global markets in 2009 based on units (US: down 56 per cent; UK: 67 per cent; Japan: 55 per cent).

The new report also summarised the top five selling titles, and their sales figures for 2009, across the three territories as follows:

1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision) 11.86m
2. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) 7.57m
3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo) 7.41m
4. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) 5.80m
5. Wii Fit (Nintendo) 5.44m

Click here to read ChartTrack’s full report.