Gaming Signal: 2005 Game Sales

2005 Game Sales

Game sales for 2005 broke the record for highest revenue in a single year, growing 6% over 2004. $10.5 billion was spent on entertainment software for PCs, consoles, and handhelds. And while this is good news overall, what was interesting was how this is split between sources and what software sold the most.

PC game sales declined 14% to $953 million down from $1.1 billion in 2004. Console sales were also down - with console hardware sales declining 3% and console software sales declining 14%. What was up? Handhelds were all the rage - and while the growth of the Sony PSP and the launch of the Nintendo DS were important, the GameBoy Advance continued to drive considerable revenue - accounting for over half of all portable hardware and software sold ($1.4 billion!)

The software market for one handheld (GBA) was greater than the entire PC game market. Wow - I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.

Think you know what titles generated the most revenue in 2005? Think maybe it was Resident Evil 4 or another game from the various top 10 lists? Think again - the top 5 is dominated by sports titles. The top 5 are: Madden 06 for the PS2, Pokemon Emerald for the GBA, GT4 for the PS2, Madden 06 for the XBOX, and NCAA Football 06 for the PS2.

I think it's interesting that the video game industry is supposedly tailoring games for adults in the 25-35 age bracket (which some of us just left) and yet the money seems to be coming in from portable systems...if they start running with that trend, I wonder what that will mean for console and PC releases...will we start seeing games coming out on portable first?? GT5 on the PSP first?? hmm...interesting... as for sports games, that doesn't surprise me TOO much (a little but not too much)..one of the reasons I got an xbox was to let me son beat on me in espn baseball

Posted by doug on Wednesday January 18, 2006 at 11:11 AM

I am not really suprised by the big sellers for games. Sports games sell big since they are popular, and many gamers are armchair coaches. As to the portable numbers, I believe that the numbers for games built for the PSP and DS will continue to rise as those consoles mature. The older consoles will continue to see larger sale numbers due to the simple fact that that newer consoles are not available and new games are very expensive. Another fact that Gaming Steve pointed out in his Jan 3 podcast is that folks that are playing MMORPGs may lead to lower sales on PCs (and other platforms) since they are not necessarily buying new games. I would be interested to see what companies lost money the most in the PC fall - my guess is that Blizzard is not one of those companies that would have lost money...

Posted by Tim on Wednesday January 18, 2006 at 2:10 PM