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The UK interactive entertainment software market hit a new all time high in 2006, according to Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) as it its reveals annual performance figures.

2006 was an exciting year for the industry with a growth in sales, the industry enjoyed a 7% increase on units sold from the previous year taking the total to a whopping 65.1 million units sold. ELSPA happily announces these record sales of interactive entertainment software across all formats totalling £1.36 billion, an increase of over 1% over 2005’s record figures.

PIctured (right): Eidos games Lara Croft - number seven in this year's most sold game chart with Tomb Raider Legend.

Paul Jackson, Director General of ELSPA, said: "We are thrilled to see the industry growing and software sales continuing to rise. With the new generation consoles and new handhelds there are some amazing titles out there and consumers are continuing to enjoy them. There are new and exciting games available and more and more family orientated and mentally stimulating titles to grasp and hold the interest of all ages. This is also a testament to the industry and it will continue to gain momentum.”

Handhelds

With popularity of the handhelds on the market, the PSP and the DS, and the next generation consoles titles it is fantastic to see that PC software sales are also continuing to increase. Seeing PC titles have had their best year in ever in 2006 with a huge 7% increase since the previous year.

Paul Jackson continued: “Although there are new consoles and handhelds for gamers its is great to see that the PC market is doing so well.”

The most popular console software was the PS2, followed by the Xbox 360, the Xbox, Wii and GameCube followed. Last year turned out to be the year of the handheld too with the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PSP software coming in only behind PS2 software, with the DS slightly outdoing the PSP.

The top ten games for 2006:

1 FIFA 07 (EA Sport)
2 Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Konami)
3 Need For Speed: Carbon (EA Games)
4 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar)
5 Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy (Lucas Arts)
6 The Sims 2: Pets (EA Games)
7 Cars (THQ)
8 Tomb Raider Legend (Eidos)
9 The Sims 2 (EA Games)
10 WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 (THQ)

The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) was founded in 1989 to establish a specific and collective identity for the computer and video games industry. Membership includes almost all companies concerned with the publishing and distribution of interactive leisure software in the UK. For more information about the work of of ELSPA, follow this link: www.elspa.com

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