NPD has released a detailed breakdown of the top ten selling console games in North America throughout 2004. As previously reported, the market saw a very small decline in revenue, but a marked increase in total software sales. The number one selling game, by a margin of over one million, was Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This will have been little surprise to anyone in the industry and indeed, most of the rest of the top ten is equally predictable. What is interesting is that, while the PlayStation 2 version of Madden NFL 2005 sold more than twice the numbers of the budget-priced ESPN NFL 2K5, the Xbox version of Take-Two/Sega’s game actually beat its Electronic Arts published rival. What this suggests in terms of the buying habits of PS2 owners versus Xbox owners, though, is difficult to discern. Perhaps the only real surprise in the top ten is the original Halo, first released in 2002 as a launch title. This again underlines the importance of the Halo franchise to the Xbox and illustrates how much of the console’s success has been tied to this one product line.

The NPD Group/NPD Funworld