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2006 UK game sales break records

The British games industry celebrates, as last year was the best ever for game software.

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, a British game-industry trade body, has revealed that 2006 was a booming year for the UK game industry, with all-format sales of game software totaling an impressive £1.36 billion (approximately $2.6 billion).

The best-selling software format was the PlayStation 2, which has also managed to ship a total of more than 40 million consoles across Europe. In second place were games for the Nintendo DS, which "slightly outdid" Sony's PlayStation Portable at number three, followed by the Xbox 360, the Xbox, the Wii, and the GameCube.

PC titles performed well, too, and also boasted their best-ever year, with sales increasing 7 percent from 2005.

ELSPA's director general, Paul Jackson, said that he believed that the industry would continue to gain momentum. "With the new-generation consoles and new handhelds there are some amazing titles out there and consumers are continuing to enjoy them," he said. "There are new and exciting games available and more and more family-orientated and mentally stimulating titles to grasp and hold the interest of all ages."

The top-selling game for 2006 was Electronic Arts' FIFA 07, followed by another football title, Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 6, and racer Need for Speed Carbon at number three.

The other titles in the top 10 were Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories at four, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy at five, The Sims 2: Pets at six, Cars at seven, Tomb Raider: Legend at eight, The Sims 2 at nine, and WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007 at number 10.

82 Comments

  • tommyvercetti1

    Posted Aug 8, 2007 10:13 am GMT

    "Where's the PS3? Oh right, it's across the ocean in America."
    No way, it should be IN the ocean. It is about as good as Atari Pac-Man. Aggh! Flashback!

  • commando611

    Posted Jun 4, 2007 1:25 am GMT

    really...for me..football is just too boreing to play.

  • Hondje89

    Posted May 26, 2007 7:18 am GMT

    Football/Soccer is just very popular in the UK... It has nothing to do with ''being smart'', moron.

  • King_Louis51

    Posted May 25, 2007 4:05 am GMT

    I am from the UK, and it pisses me off that gems like Gears of War and Oblivion didn't turn up in this list. In fact, how the hell did FIFA 07 beat PES 6 anyway? When will the english learn? I feel like i'm the only clever gamer in the country

  • Rivent

    Posted Mar 31, 2007 9:10 am GMT

    Sucks to be English, there are only a few people that know what they are doing when it comes to games, like me ^ ^ There are alot of:
    Typical Chavs - Football, GTA and need for speed
    Stupid kids - Cars, GTA and big gays in tight pants
    Typical girls - Sims, Sims, Sims, Sims, Sims and Sims

    Thankfully Tomb Raider and Lego Star Wars aren't that bad, but still only up there because adverts tell parents to buy them.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jan 21, 2007 5:25 pm GMT

    Just want to see the pc figures. Problem with general figures is one machine can be way up another can be down, and so the overall figures say a little bit up, where it talks like everything is a little up, but where really something is down, like PC. So can we get specific figures Gamespot?

  • matrixman2k

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 10:20 pm GMT

    Hmmmm

    Hey morororo...That was a nice statement. Very emotional...indeed.
    Sounded like someone who is probably bullied right into their door by the local youths and their typical antisocial technics...Seriously you should lighten up.

    Still the smarter ones amongst us are never taken into account...

    I'll leave the rest to imagination...hmmm...

  • morororo

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 2:46 am GMT

    Britain has far too many sheep in this country. It's really sad. If anything good comes out you know it's gonna bomb, anyone with any talent will never get noticed, our tv shows are getting as trashy as American telly. Our society is so fecking dumb now I really fear for the country in the next 20, even 10 years.

    People here are content with liking utter crap, it makes me die a little inside. It's not just video games. It's everything. Kids are just cookie cutter clones of one another and follow blindly with whatever the next kid is into, despite it being utterly rubbish. Parents are just the same with their keeping up with the Joneses crap. Take my street, everyone has a brand new silver car. There are other colours you cretins! This is a country where Jade Goody can become a millionaire cause most people can relate to how farking retarded she is and buy her book and other trash.

    Phew, sorry about that. I just woke up and that list of games annoyed me!

  • WNxCozzy

    Posted Jan 14, 2007 1:26 pm GMT

    What does it matter what "most" people like? Infact why do the charts even bother some of you? just play your own games.

  • break_assasin

    Posted Jan 14, 2007 1:03 pm GMT

    wat the hell, i am quite ashamed

  • 360gamerz

    Posted Jan 14, 2007 5:20 am GMT

    CHAVS SUCK

  • nev70

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 12:18 pm GMT

    Remember this fellow uk gamers POPULAR / BEST SELLING DOES NOT EQUATE TO GOOD AS WE CAN SEE ............just like the film Love Actually loads of people went to see it but we all know its a pile of S**T. For this year I cant wait for biowares rpg Mass Effect!!!!!!!!!! also Dirt as well !

  • MorbidAnimation

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 11:05 am GMT

    Also, don't forget that GOW hasn't being out that long, while some games on the top 10 have been out for a while. I also think that some games on the list are quite good.

    Lego SW and Cars are there because kids like that sort of stuff, so parents buy those games. It's a proven formula, and there's nothing wrong with that.

    As for the others, I don't see anything fishy there, although some games I've played are disappointing.

  • Caviglia

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 11:01 am GMT

    I weep when it comes to the tastes of my fellow UK gamers.

    Every year..GTA, Fifa, The Sims, Need for Speed...boring buggers.

  • goose_uk

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 10:05 am GMT

    gears will not be up there because it is an exclusive.... FIFA etc has such high sales because it is on every single platform, not to mention heavily marketed

  • Chef_Bretz

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 8:36 am GMT

    Must be the overwhelming number of parents buying games for their children, as I wouldn’t say any of those games are particularly great! Shame.

  • Sanguis_Malus

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 7:00 am GMT

    To the THE-ZOZ, why would you fell compelled to write such foolish comments. Consoles are not doomed, in fact the market is huge. Not everybody wants to sit in a room on their own playing away all the time on a PC. I have nothing against PC games but I prefer console gaming, thats my choice. You can stick to you're geek sessions. I will be enjoying a few beers with the lads, sat on spacious, comfy sofas, with my home cinema sound thats awesome and my HDTV that gives a fantastic picture.

    Don't knock other peoples gaming choices because you are insecure or can't afford the same !

  • rayoliteuk

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 4:20 am GMT

    It would be interesting to know the best selling on each platform. The best PC/X360 games like Oblivion don't stand a chance against the volumes of PS2 games.

  • THE-ZOZ

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:46 pm GMT

    WHAT.... PS2 THE BEST SELLING FORMAT IN 2006(PANTS)
    PC GAMING WILL RULE 2007 AND BEYOND . PC ARE MUCH POWERFUL
    THAN ALL CONSOLES PUT TOGHTER AND IT GOT BETTER GRAPHICS
    ESPECIALLY WITH THE NEW NVIDIA 8800GTX (in other word it will eat ps3 for breakfast ), NOT TO MENTION THE AWESOME GAMES THAT COMING TO the PC (exclusively) SO xbox 360 & ps3 ARE DOOMED ALREADY.

  • DanC1989

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 4:25 pm GMT

    I'm ashamed to be called British.

  • darklight86

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 4:17 pm GMT

    UK is a market of casuals and chavs it makes me sad.
    At least decent games are still available for the rest of us to enjoy.

    Pfff.

  • piecake

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 4:10 pm GMT

    games yay!

  • king_of_Yoshis

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 3:52 pm GMT

    I don't have an X360, but I did expect Gear of War to be up there what with how everyone loves and praises. I know someone who got a 360 and Gears recently and they really like it. Well, all I know is that FFXII and Okami are coming to the PS2 this year, so I'm looking forward to them. I wonder if they'll fare better than some the games in 2006...

  • trollfan

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 12:50 pm GMT

    ok, so stop b1tching about piracy already, will ya?

  • fordies

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 12:21 pm GMT

    Did anyone really expect anything different this countries market is probably 95% casual and they are the type of games casual likes seriously you would have to be pretty stupid to think Gears and Zelda be up there because they are exclusives ok Zelda isnt quite exclusive but even between the 2 nintendo systems one sold terribly and the other is only just been released with limited stock so sales were never going to be that great. Then Gears is exclusive to the 360 and even though every 360 owner more than likely has it butunless every 360 owner went out and bought several copies of Gears it didnt have a hope in hell up against Multiplats that were on the ps2. There is only 1 game on that list that isnt on the ps2 which is by far the highest selling console here so of course games available on the ps2 are going to sell more than any other console.
    The fact is football is huge here and almost every football fan will go out and buy the new Fifa and Pro evo every year no matter how little the changes plus it appeals to every demographic group so it will always sell more thn say a Zelda or Gears and you can almost guarantee that this years will have the top 2 and the only game that can challenge them is GTA as all the casuals overe here love it.

  • Bobbington69

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 11:50 am GMT

    Yeah, in general, British taste in games is terrible. Games like Resident Evil 4 (in my opinion one of the greatest games around) just sit on the shelves collecting dust. They don't even get sold when the price is cut to just over a tenner (for PS2 version). As for the lack of Gears....some people are just plain stupid. How can anyone with a 360 avoid getting that game? I'm looking forward to the PS3 launch in March, I want to get one as soon as possible (once I get the money...stupid pricing...). I think the delay for the European launch has really helped European gamers. Now, we get less of the crap at the beginning and get games like MotorStorm almost straight away.

  • lucky326

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 11:44 am GMT

    Oh yeah GOW beaten by Cars...WWE and NFS: Carbon seriously What the hell went wrong over here

  • andrew_ribbons

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 11:36 am GMT

    LMAO! Sims 2, Soccer games and Cars at the top.........console gaming all round if you ask me For us PC gamers, it's all about the quality, not the quantity

  • aramitz

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 10:16 am GMT

    I think the only hope for us Brit gamers is to learn every other foriegn language under the sun so we can import some half decent titles. The upside to this is that it'd still be cheaper even with customs and delivery!. Although to be fair because all the chavs buy nothing but EA games if you're after something else and you go to a game specialist store chances are it'll be on the shelves (unsold) ;P.

  • nirvanasource

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 9:55 am GMT

    Note that it's casual gamers that dictate the charts. The exact market the Wii is targetting... the Wii could yet win this gen.

    Also, so much for piracy being bad.

  • MorbidAnimation

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 9:23 am GMT

    I suppose diablobasher's right when he said that the British have no taste in games. It's all FIFA and PES, but then again, football does rule over everything here (except those bloody stupid upper-class cricket fans).

    FIFA never changes, and neither does PES. No matter what licences they have (or not), they always get kits wrong. I didn't imagine FIFA would make more mistakes with Portsmouth's kit this season, but they did. When will they learn? And since when did those Southampton scummers have Premiership-typeface numbers, when they're in the fizzy pop league? Dearie, dearie me.

    NFS Carbon? That were rubbish!!

    Why not enough quality titiles this year? There weren't much going on this year. Gears of War would top this chart if it were released a month earlier, but sod it.

    PS For 2007, I predict FF XII to top t'charts.

  • sancezz

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 9:22 am GMT

    ...Gears....? beaten...by Cars? Not even...in top 10...? What happened?

  • murisaki

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 9:22 am GMT

    While I can live with Fifa and PES up there, seeing a Need for Speed title up in 3rd makes my stomach churn.

    I'm surprised that Raw Vs. Smackdown also made it up there so easily. It's only been out for a couple of months...

    Weird taste, indeed...

  • diablobasher

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 8:49 am GMT

    This country sucks, i hate living here, all the idiots here have no taste whatsoever, all they want to play are football games and anything with blood/gore in it, or movie licensed games.

    I mean, what is it with people?! Clearly content to be spoonfed rubbish they, in a lot of cases purposely AVOID quality games and buy things like scarface/fifa/etc... It just boggles the mind.

    The PS3 launch here is gonna be a shambles, chavs everywhere are going to buy up every single one without question and sony are going to make millions simply because the £ is stronger than the $. They fact they are going to sell the PS3 here at double the cost of a US console is sickening.

  • lucky326

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 8:19 am GMT

    Hmm well its good to know the record was beat here but Fifa 07 , Pro Evo 6 and Need for Speed Carbon where are the games like Oblivion, GRAW and TP Im thinking this was a bad year based on those games.

    I am not looking forward to the PS3 launch here either they will sell better than the others regardless of the price mark my words.

  • Doolum

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 8:15 am GMT

    Fifa Forever.

  • ALewisM

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 8:05 am GMT

    Wow shame my fellow country men have no taste in games whatsoever.

  • pompomboy

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:57 am GMT

    Wow i love living in london ps3 P**ns everything haha

  • KingKoop

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:16 am GMT

    FIFA? P'ah! But still 40,000,000 consoles at a £100 a pop, drinks are on Sony!

  • hussein_nahidh

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:05 am GMT

    that's fine really,, but it seems that pro6 is takin the lead from fifa2007

  • uncledeath2005

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 6:55 am GMT

    Can't believe peple keep buying FIFA year after year I mean each year the changes are minimal and mostly cosmetic. There is no telling some people

  • GrimBee

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 6:14 am GMT

    Fifa is 360 exclusive this year... I wonder how the charts will be then! If people dont buy into the 360 then, this means GOOD games will be on the charts! lol

  • Irve

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 5:33 am GMT

    you know with Fifa becoming more and more like Pro Evo ... konami are gonig to actually stump up the cash and buy some more licences to compete

  • matrixman2k

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 4:00 am GMT

    Hmmm...it's always the usual suspects; the fifas, the PESs etc. etc.

    And when you look in the secondhand box 6 months later they're all there due to a newer version...same cycle...

  • sirvampalot

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 2:52 am GMT

    may be sony should look at this and get a move on with the ps3.

  • nsoufiani

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 2:50 am GMT

    What the hellis up with people and Fifa. Stupid Fifa

  • doomhesoka55

    Posted Jan 11, 2007 11:03 pm GMT

    I have rhe best three games but I think that pro evolution soccer is better than fifa

  • brant_almighty

    Posted Jan 11, 2007 10:01 pm GMT

    imprezawrx500
    you americans have odd tastes. Madden madden and more madden you europeans have odd tastes. FIFA FIFA and more pro evolution soccer

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted Jan 11, 2007 8:42 pm GMT

    you americans have odd tastes. Madden madden and more madden

  • TryMe01

    Posted Jan 11, 2007 8:26 pm GMT

    hooray for games, this time in the UK region (no EU?)

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