Get ready for some incredibly big numbers because I’m about to unload 2007 videogame sales on you and they are really massive. According to the NPD group overall videogame sales (console software, hardware and accessories, etc., etc.) were nearly $18 billion for 2007. This would be an increase of 43 percent over 2006 and is also commonly referred to as a shit-ton of money. Someone better be pulling a Scrooge McDuck money vault swim right now or it’s all going to waste if you ask me.

Breaking the numbers down, software sales totaled $8.64 billion for the year, an increase of 34 percent over 2006 with Halo 3 and Wii Play being the top selling games of the year with 4.8 million and 4.21 million units sold respectively. Looks like a free controller can do a lot for a game. Hardware wise it’s no surprise that the Wii and the DS dominated the market selling 8.5 million and 6.29 million units sold, respectively. Xbox 360 followed, selling 4.62 million, PS2 sold 3.97 million, PSP sold 3.82 million, and PS3 sold the least, with 2.56 million sold during the year. Of course with a year like this even coming in last isn’t that bad as the PS3 has been seeing a steady resurgence and sales are up for everyone.

Thanks mostly to the Wii and its plethora of peripherals (say that three times fast) peripheral sales were up 52 percent with sales reaching 2.26 billion dollars. The Wii Remote and nunchuck were the top sellers despite the release of this. Hit the jump for a list of the top selling games and some quotes from everyone’s favorite quote givers, analysts.

Top games of 2007 are listed below by unit sales:

360 Halo 3, Microsoft, Sept: 4.82 million
Wii Play w/ Remote, Nintendo, Feb: 4.12 million
360 Call of Duty 4, Activision, November: 3.04 million
PS2 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision, Oct: 2.72 million
Wii Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo, Nov: 2.52 million
NDS Pokemon Diamond, Nintendo, Apr: 2.48 million
PS2 Madden NFL 08, EA, Aug: 1.9 million
PS2 Guitar Hero II, Activision, Nov: 1.89 million
360 Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft, Nov: 1.87 million
Wii Mario Party 8, Nintendo, May: 1.82 million

As for next year, NPD analyst Anita Frazier stated, “While I wouldn’t count on similar growth in 2008, I would expect to see 2008 increase over 2007, with more growth (proportionately) coming from software sales. While we will continue to see strong hardware sales, particularly if prices come down again, the spotlight now turns from hardware to software.”

[Via Next-Gen]

Categories: DS, Epic, Gaming Industry, Microsoft, Nintendo, PSP, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Sales, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360