US software sales top $7 billion for 2003

The final figures for last year's software sales in the USA show that the market had another record breaking year, with sales breaking $7 billion for the first time, although falling console prices brought overall industry sales down.

In fact, the overall sales figure was down by 4 per cent to $11.2 billion, with a drop in both console hardware prices more than offsetting the small 1.5 per cent rise in overall software sales, which were dragged down by a decline in the PC market.

Electronic Arts scored the best selling game of the year with Madden NFL 2004, but it was Nintendo that had the most titles in the top ten ranking for 2003, with four games (two on the Cube and two on the GBA) over EA's three.

Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire were at number two and three respectively, while Zelda: Wind Waker was at five, and Mario Kart Double Dash was at number six. EA's other two titles were Need for Speed Underground at number four, and Medal of Honour Rising Sun at number ten.

Tellingly, not a single Xbox title made it into the top ten - with every game aside from Nintendo's entries being a PS2 title (NPD ranks separate SKUs of titles individually, so cross platform titles receive multiple listings).

Nintendo and EA aside, Rockstar Games; Grand Theft Auto: Vice City continued selling through 2003 to take number six in the chart, while Activision scored the number eight position with Tony Hawk Underground, and Atari's Enter the Matrix was the ninth best selling game of the year despite its widespread critical panning.

Unfortunately NPD continues to provide separate rankings for console and PC software (we don't know why, and we wish they wouldn't), so it's not possible to work out if any PC games would have made it into the overall top ten; but we can tell you that the best selling PC title of the year was EA's The Sims: Superstar expansion pack, with The Sims Deluxe at number two.

In fact, EA managed a stunning seven of the top ten PC games, and four of them were Sims titles - with the remaining entries being Command & Conquer Generals at number three, Sim City 4 at number seven and Battlefield 1942 at number ten.

The other publishers who got a look in on the PC were Vivendi, whose Warcraft III Frozen Throne expansion pack was at number four, Activision, which went to number eight with Call of Duty, and Microsoft, with a number nine placing for Age of Mythology.