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Study shows mature-rated games selling best

A new study of US game sales has highlighted that games rated M for Mature have the highest average gross sales in the region, despite a number of major retailers refusing to stock adult-themed games.

A new study of US game sales has highlighted that games rated M for Mature have the highest average gross sales in the region, despite a number of major retailers refusing to stock adult-themed games.

The study analysed 219 retail games and 187 downloadable games for the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The research by EEDAR also revealed that games which received a Metacritic score of 90 or more achieved sales of up to 531 per cent more than the industry average, although these high scoring games made up only 2 per cent of the titles released.

While console manufacturers are keen to stress the importance of online functionalities, 45 per cent of retail games do not utilise any online features at all.

A massive 98 per cent of the Nintendo Wii catalogue does not include any online features, despite Nintendo releasing more than twice the number of retail and downloadable games than either the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 during the first seven months of each platform's launch.

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Matt Martin avatar
Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.