Alex Reid

The US Video Game market earned $12.5 billion last year, a 19% jump from 2005. December pulled in $3.7 billion alone (or 28% of the total annual sales). No doubt this is because of the big three video game companies released their new consoles all in mid-November (Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360).

Retail sales of computer games reached nearly a billion dollars in 2006 (only a 2% bump from last year). World of Warcraft clearly owns the market, but surprisingly the Sims dominated 2006.

My favourite PC game, Civilization IV is on the list at #9.

Here is the complete list:

1. World of Warcraft–Vivendi Games
2. The Sims 2–Electronic Arts
3. The Sims 2: Open For Business Expansion Pack–Electronic Arts
4. Star Wars: Empire At War–LucasArts
5. The Sims 2: Pets Expansion Pack–Electronic Arts
6. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion–Take-Two Interactive
7. Age of Empires III–Microsoft
8. The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff Expansion Pack–Electronic Arts
9. Civilization IV–Take-Two Interactive
10. The Sims 2: Nightlife Expansion Pack–Electronic Arts

Note these rankings/sales do not include distribution fees, which is a great new revenue streams for gaming companies.