Gamertell

It was bound to happen and now the numbers show that it has: In 2008, video game sales surpassed sales of DVD and Blu-ray movies.

According to a report from Media Control GfK International as cited by CD Freaks, games were responsible for 53 percent of entertainment pulling in $32 billion. Those figures don’t include rentals of either movies or games.

That’s a 30 percent increase for games over 2007 numbers. Driving the increase is the Nintendo Wii, which continues to fly off shelves faster than Nintendo can provide new units. The four top-selling video games in North America were all on Nintendo’s wonder console.

The Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV came in fifth. Of course GTA was spread across two consoles, so adding PS3 sales would move GTA further up the list. In the interest of comparing apples to apples, it’s also important to note that while DVDs and Blu-ray discs cost around $20-$30, current-generation console games can cost as much as $60.

GfK’s numbers also look at just software sales, not hardware. Considering what a game console costs in comparison to a DVD player, that would have skewed the numbers even further in gaming’s favor.

So, overall, more movie units are still moving than video games but the spending trend is still significant. The biggest movie of the year sales wise was The Dark Knight, which moved an impressive 15 million unit and the total entertainment market grew to $61 billion. GfK anticipates that growth in the gaming market will continue in 2009, estimating games will account for 57 percent of entertainment sales this year.

Read [CD Freaks] Also Read [GameDaily]