Top Global Markets Reveals Top Games of Q3 2008; Madden, Wii Fit, Star Wars Rank High

Marketing research groups The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain today released the second Top Global Markets report, detailing the five best-selling video games in the US, UK and Japan between July and September 2008:

1. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon / PS2, PS3, 360, Wii, NDS, PSP) - 2.99M

   (2.95M US, 25K UK, 1K Japan)

2. Wii Fit (Wii / Nintendo) - 2.08M

   (1.28M US, 460K UK, 346K Japan)

3. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed * - 1.73M

   (1.41M US, 321K UK, Not Yet Released in Japan)

4. Pokemon Platinum (DS / Game Freak) - 1.48M

   (1.48M Japan, Not Yet Released in the UK or US)

5. Mario Kart Wii (Wii / Nintendo) - 1.46M

   (856K US, 394K UK, 218K Japan)

In all, the "three largest game markets" grew an average 1% in the three months between July and September 2008. The UK was up 15%, though the report noted this is "skewed" as console software saw a 26% gain while portable software was down 1%. During the same time last year, the UK saw a 34% overall growth.

"Taking into consideration the marked differences between the 3 territories, the UK market in particular is gearing up for a best-ever Q4 performance overall, even under the well-documented financial climate," noted GfK Chart-Track Limited business group director Dorian Bloch.

The United States was the only market to see an increase over Q3 2007, growing 8% in Q3 2008 versus 5% in Q3 2007. Console software grew 6% in the US, with portable software growing 10%.

Japan, meanwhile, was down 21% over last year, when it saw a 27% growth. Console software was down 33%, with portable software down 13%. Enterbrain global marketing analyst Ricky Tanimoto said that "overall video game sales in Japan this holiday season will not be greatly affected by the the world financial crisis."

Tanimoto blamed lack of anticipated titles in Q3 2008, referring to Q3 2007 as a "banner year" for Japan, and noted that games "generally have stronger launch sales in Japan, which represent a large percentage of the total sales in Japan compared to the US and UK."

Created earlier this year, the Top Global Markets report is said to be "a single source for sales data" for the "the largest games markets in the world," but does not include all global markets, such as Canada.

*(PS2, PS3, 360, Wii, DS, PSP / LucasArts, Krome, n-Space)