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Video Game Sales Increase 57 Percent In March

U.S. sales of video game hardware and software increased 57 percent in March from a year earlier, according to a report from the NPD Group.Sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories reached $1.7 billion in March with the Nintendo Wii seeing its biggest gain in a non-holiday month.

42% Of Americans Play Games Online

Participation in gaming increased in 2007 over 2006, from 64 percent of the population to 72 percent of the population according to a new report from The NPD Group, "Online Gaming 2008."More than half play games online, with 90 percent of online gamers saying they use a PC to play games and 19 percent said they use a video game console with 3 percent saying they use a cell phone.The number of online gamers relative to the total U.S. population is 42 percent so far this year, up from 40 percent in 2007.

Tweens Prefer iTunes To P2P

We're not sure we believe it, but a new study by the NPD Group claims that purchasing music from Apple’s iTunes Store is more popular with tweens (kids 9-to 14) than "illegally"  downloading music. The report says 70% of tweens now use legal services with iTunes grabbing 49%, Limewire still commands 26% and MySpace is used by 16%.

Wii Top Seller For January

Research firm the NPD Group has released its U.S. retail sales figures for January 2008. Software sales for the month were up by 11 percent to $611 million, hardware sales dropped by a quarter to $378 million. Overall the industry was down 6 percent for the month managing to reach $1.18 billion compared to January 2007 sales of $1.25 billion.

Game Sales Reach $9.5 Billion

Computer and video game software sales reached $9.5 billion in 2007, a 28 percent increase over the previous year and set a new record according to the NPD Group and announced by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). Halo 3 was the best selling title of 2007 bringing in $170 million in revenue its first day of sales.