While the U.S. remains on top in the videogame market, a surprising turn of events over the past several years has resulted in the UK videogame market emerging as number two, beating Japan for the first time in history.

With all the hype around Halo 3 this year, it was believed that nothing could stand in its way. Microsoft thought they had locked out any competition after the game’s launch sales, but the smirk has been wiped off their faces. Another game was crowned King.

Sacre Bleu! We’re sinking! December was the last we heard of the lifetime sales of the next generation of consoles in France. We were given the figures 270,000 for the Playstation 3 and 500,000 for the Xbox 360. According to the French newspaper Les Echoes, the Playstation 3′s lifetime sales have since doubled.