There were only seven games selling more than 100,000 units apiece in September compared to 20 last September. Consumers are clearly holding fire and waiting for the big releases to arrive at retail.

However, comparisons with last September are not wholly fair. That month saw a 44% year-on-year sales increase driven by the arrival of Nintendo’s Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green (GBA), LucasArts' Star Wars Battlefront (PS2, Xbox, PC), and Microsoft’s Fable (Xbox) which combined for approximately $95 million in sales.


The launch of Xbox 360 is likely to inject life into the industry as well as a widely-anticipated price-cut on PlayStation 2. Sony's PSP and Nintendo DS are also likely to be high on many Christmas lists.

sales figures:

PlayStation 2

1 MADDEN NFL 06 Electronic Arts $15,5M 322,542
2 NBA LIVE 06 Electronic Arts $9,1M 184,498
3 NASCAR 06: Electronic Arts $5,3M 109,016
4 TIGER WOODS 06 Electronic Arts $5M 101,770
5 X-MEN LEGENDS 2 Activision £3.9M 78,209

Xbox

1 MADDEN NFL 06 Electronic Arts $7.2M 149,682
2 RAINBOW SIX:LCKDUbisoft $6.1M 126,024
3 BURNOUT REVENGE Electronic Arts $4.1M 83,698
4 NBA LIVE 06 Electronic Arts $4.1M 83,126
5 X-MEN LEGENDS 2 Activision $3.9M 78,182

GameCube

1 MARIO BASEBALL Nintendo $8.1M 164,170
2 WWE RECKONING 2 THQ $4.3M 86,708
3 MADDEN NFL 06 Electronic Arts $1.5M 32,486
4 POKEMON XD: GoD Nintendo $1.3M 26,229
5 INCREDIBLE HULK VU Games $1.3M 26,449

Handhelds

1 MADDEN NFL 06 Electronic Arts $4M 82,527
2 NINTENDOGS: CHI Nintendo $2.6M 85,117
3 NINTENDOGS: LAB Nintendo $2.5M 81,810
4 BURNOUT LEGENDS Electronic Arts $2.5M 48,902
5 GBA POKEMON EMERALD Nintendo $2.4M 68,490