"You'd never know that the US economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures. Year-to-date growth is rock-solid 27% through March," said Anita Frazier, an NPD industry analyst.
Video game software accounted for the bulk of the gaming industry's earnings with nearly $946 million in sales. Hardware did not lag far behind, bringing in $551.3 million in March. In console sales Nintendo's Wii led the pack with 721,000 units. Video game accessories had a decent showing as well with sales of $220 million, an increase of 58% over March 2007.
"Overall hardware sales are staggering, and that is what is sustaining this software sales growth. The software numbers are unprecedented and largely unfathomable," said Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Morgan analyst.
"It is important to note that March represented the second highest sales month ever - outside of Decembers - with only November 2007 higher, and we expect sales in April to approach the same level," Pachter added.
Joe Public 1 day
