Canadian Games Market Up 22%

According to a report from the Canadian Press, total revenues for the video games industry in Canada reached a record $933 million in 2006, up by 22 percent on 2005. Hardware sales alone accounted for $349 million in revenues, up 43 percent from the previous year thanks to the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Wii. In total 1.62 million consoles were sold in 2006, up from 1.35 million in 2005. The Nintendo DS Lite was the best selling hardware of the year with 374,000 units sold. The second best selling console of the year was the PlayStation 2 with 327,000 units sold, then the Xbox 360 on 252,000 units, the Game Boy Advance at 237,000, the PSP at 176,500, the GameCube at 89,000, the Wii at 84,000, the PlayStation 3 at 45,000 and the Xbox at 32,000. The Wii outsold the old PlayStation 3 in November, but the situation was reversed in December with more stock of the PlayStation 3 being available than its rival. Software sales were put at $481 million for the year, up 10 percent from 2005. Accessories and peripherals were up 24 percent to just under $104 million. The best selling game of the year in Canada was the PlayStation 2 version of locally developer NHL 07 from Electronic Arts. In the top twenty of the year nine titles were for PlayStation formats, four the Nintendo DS, three for the Xbox 360 and one each for the Wii, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Xbox. The full list of the top ten selling games in Canada for 2006 are as follows: