NPD Reports Top Ten Selling Games of 2004
- January 19, 2005 13:27 PM PST
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Despite the media hubbub of Halo 2, GTA took the crown.
The NPD Group today reported the annual sales results for the games industry in 2004, showing a year bolstered by high-profile launches.Total sales including hardware, software and accessories was over $9.9 billion, surprisingly slightly (less than 1%) from the $10 billion reported in 2003. Industry sales were up 4% with dollar sales seeing an increase in console software, portable software and hardware, by 7%, 11% and 10% respectively. Portable software sales broke the $1 billion dollar mark for the first time, largely in part to the success of the Nintendo DS and the venerable Pokemon franchise.
Total software sales saw an increase to $6.2 billion, up 8% compared to $5.8 billion in 2003.
"This year's positive sales results clearly reveal the increasing appeal of video game playing as a leisure time activity among the largest consumer base in the history of the industry," said Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst, The NPD Group. "The successful launches of some of the highest quality and best marketed titles ever produced, drops in price points for hardware, as well as the introduction of new hardware systems all helped make 2004 another stellar year for the video games industry."
The top ten selling games of 2004 are as follows:
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
- Halo 2 (Xbox)
- Madden NFL 2005 (PS2)
- ESPN NFL 2K5 (PS2)
- Need For Speed: Underground 2 (PS2)
- Pokemon Fire Red /w Adapter (GBA)
- NBA Live 2005 (PS2)
- Spider-Man: The Movie 2 (PS2)
- Halo (Xbox)
- ESPN NFL 2K5 (Xbox)
