Record-breaking video game sales in US

According to sales figures from the NPD Group, the video game industry generated a record-breaking $10.3 billion in US retail sales in 2002, compared to the previous record high of $9.4 billion in 2001. Interestingly, this growth was achieved in spite of the fact that the annual revenue generated by sales of video game hardware fell from $3.7 billion to $3.5 billion as a result of the year's price reductions across all platforms. It's thanks to those same price reductions that the overall sales for video games increased though because the actual number of game consoles sold in 2002 was 10 percent more than in the previous year.

Partly as a result of there being so many more game consoles in homes across the US, the number of games sold in 2002 was an impressive 15 percent more than in 2001. This was also, of course, thanks to the massive success experienced by a number of key games such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The best-selling video games in the US during 2002 were as follows:

Rank / Platform / Title / Publisher / Released / Average Price
1 / PS2 / Grand Theft Auto: Vice City / Rockstar / Oct '02 / $49
2 / PS2 / Grand Theft Auto III / Rockstar / Oct '01 / $50
3 / PS2 / Madden NFL 2003 / EA / Aug '02 / $49
4 / GBA / Super Mario Advance 2 / Nintendo / Feb '02 / $29
5 / PS2 / Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec / SCEA / July '01 / $24
6 / PS2 / Medal of Honor Frontline / EA / May '02 / $50
7 / PS2 / Spider-Man: The Movie / Activision / Apr '02 / $45
8 / PS2 / Kingdom Hearts / Square EA / Sept '02 / $49
9 / Xbox / Halo / Microsoft / Nov '01 / $48
10 / GC / Super Mario Sunshine / Nintendo / Aug '02 / $49

"In 2003, the video game industry should expect unit volume growth to outpace dollar volume growth in the hardware category," said Richard Ow, senior account executive with The NPD Group. "Dollar volume will struggle for continued growth throughout 2003. The majority of the growth will come primarily from software sales, capitalizing on the hardware sold to date. The full power of the current generation of hardware is still unrealized. There is a barrage of new game software launches that will appeal widely to new video gamers, both old and young, expanding the software-to-hardware tie ratios of the previous generation."