Next-gen games boost January sales by 53%

Console software sales for January in North America were US $549 million (EUR 418m), a rise of 53 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Partly due to there being five weeks in the month during 2007, as opposed to four in 2006, the numbers were still a rise of 22 per cent when the extra days are taken into account.

The figure smashes estimates by analyst Wedbush Morgan which expected a rise of 32 per cent, as software sales of next-generation titles exceeded expectations.

Next-generation software sales reached US $310 million (EUR 236m), compared to a forecast of US $250 million (EUR 190m), while current-generation titles accounted for US $239 million (EUR 181m), ahead of expectations of US $225 million (EUR 171m).

The top three selling titles for Microsoft's Xbox 360 were Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Epic's Gears of War and Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Warioware: Smooth Moves was the best-selling title for the Nintendo Wii, followed by fan-favourite Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess and Ubisoft's Rayman Raving Rabbids.

The PlayStation 3's high-selling games were Resistance: Fall of Man, Madden NFL 07 and Fight Night Round 3.

Cumulative hardware sales in the US have now reached 4.8 million units for the Xbox 360, 1.5 million for the Wii and 933,000 for the PlayStation 3.

As reported earlier today, Nintendo's Wii sold 436,000 units in January in the region, while the Xbox 360 shifted 294,000, and the PS3 sold 244,000 units.