DS Leads UK Market For First Time

New data from UK market research group Chart-Track has placed the current market value of the Nintendo DS above both the PC and the PlayStation 2. Although regular hardware sales data is not usually released for the UK (or wider European) market, British trade paper MCV has revealed that the format’s software success this week has made it the market leader in the UK. According to Chart-Track’s publicly released data, there were six Nintendo first party titles in the UK top ten this week, four of them for the Nintendo DS. Pokemon Diamond was the best selling at number one, with Pokemon Pearl at number three, More Brain Training (aka Brain Age 2) at number six and Brain Training (aka Brain Age) at number nine. With older first and third party titles, such as New Super Mario Bros., Cooking Mama, Sonic Rush, Big Brain Academy and Zoo Tycoon DS, also performing well in the top forty, the Nintendo DS became the market leader in terms of both unit sales and revenues for the first time ever in the UK. In total, the six Nintendo titles in the top ten accounted for 15.2 percent of the entire unit sales in the market last week. There was also success for the Wii and PlayStation 3 though, with Nintendo’s home console also recording its biggest hardware sales figures of the year so far. The new official PlayStation 3 “starter pack” bundle, which includes two Sixaxis controllers and two free games, also appears to be having a positive effect, with Sony’s newest format also recording its highest week of sales since its launch in March this year.