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.

Dorian Bloch, Business Group Director, GfK Chart-Track Limited, recently made the following statement:

“UK console videogame software units are more than double what was achieved in 2003, which just shows how fast the UK market has been growing. Because of this amazing growth and coupled with the downtown currently being experienced in Japan, the UK market has for the first time overtaken Japan as the No2 world market. Although still behind on revenue, the gap has narrowed considerably and it will be interesting to see how things develop during 2009.”

Additionally, the UK market saw the largest year-over-year increase with sales up 26 percent, besting U.S. figures of 15 percent and Japan’s disappointing drop in sales by 13 percent. Much of Japan’s decline is attributed to a drop in PS2 software sales by 46 percent.

According to Anita Frazier, industry analyst for the NPD Group, “Only two months in 2008 saw a decline in unit sales in the U.S., with one due in large part to the release of 360 Halo 3 in Sept’07 and the other due to an additional week in the Jan’07 retail calendar.”

Combined sales of these top three markets show an overall increase in the gaming industry of 11 percent, with sales of 409.9 million units versus the 367.7 million units sold across these markets in 2007. Hooray growth!

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the best selling title of 2007. The major advantage it has over Halo 3 is that it is a multi-platform title, but even then Call Of Duty 4 managed to be the top selling game for the Xbox 360.

Call Of Duty 4 sold over 7 Million units worldwide in two short months, according to NDP, Chart Track and GFK. Taking critics, consumers and analysts by surprise, Call of Duty 4 has succeeded where it counts – in reviews and sales.

Will Kassoy, Senior Vice President of the global brand management for Activision had this to say about their successful title:

We’re very excited about this achievement especially given so many competitive titles this year. Consumer and critics agree that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best games ever created and further establishes Call of Duty as one of the premier brands in the industry.

This ground-breaking game and franchise continue to establish new standards by which all other action games will be judged.

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.

Microsoft announced in December that they had sold 500,000 Xbox 360s in France since the console was released, and Jeux France filled in the gaps for the PS3 and Wii, placing them at 270,000 and 1,100,000 units sold respectively.

It is now been divulged that Jeux France’s estimate for PS3 sales were either inaccurate, or that the PS3 has sold more than the same amount in the holiday period.

According to Les Echoes, who reported Microsoft’s sales announcement, the PS3 has sold 563,000 units, compared to the Xbox 360’s 589,000 as of this month. Although the Xbox 360 leads in these numbers, Microsoft’s console was released over a year before Sony’s offering. These numbers are supposedly from the Gfk Institute, suggesting that Sony’s price drop considerably narrowed the gap during the holiday season.

It’s surprising that this could happen so soon, but with a statement from SCEE’s vice president George Fornay, this jump in sales is explained:

By selling, on average, three times more PS3 than Xbox 360 a week, it took precedence over Microsoft

Always defiant, Microsoft responds with the fact that the Xbox 360 still leads in lifetime sales:

Sony is in catch-up mode, but we are still the market leader, according to our data, even in France.

After the price drop, Europe has really taken to the Playstation 3, barring the UK, and with sales like they are in France, Les Echoes claims that the PS3 will double the Xbox 360’s sales in the coming weeks. I’m not so sure about that.

Source: Xbox Mag