14 DAY TRIAL // A new super chart is born, aiming to track the worldwide success and sales of videogames. The NPD Group, which tracks sales for the North American market, has joined forces with GfK Chart-Track Limited, which hails from London and focuses on Europe, and with Enterbrain from Tokyo, which provides data on the Japanese market. The new product they have created is called Top Global Markets Report and it will provide unit sales, share, dollar sales and other stats on the videogames that have a global outreach.
John Pinder, who is the managing director of GfK Chart-Track Limited, said, "We are excited to be working more closely with NPD and Enterbrain. This partnership represents a great opportunity to benefit not only our clients but the industry as a whole by providing a comprehensive, industry-supported view of sales across the three largest video game markets".
Initially, the new report will only deal with North America, the United Kingdom and Japan, which are the largest markets in the world, with the possibility of data for other areas being added latter.
The three companies have already compiled and released global data for this year, saying which the top five games in the world in 2008 are, based on sales made until July. Even if it is not released yet in Japan, Grand Theft Auto IV manages to top the charts, with more than 6,200,000 copies sold in the entire world. Super Smash Bros: Brawl takes the second place with a bit over 5,443,000 units shipped to customers, with Mario Kart Wii in third place sporting sales of just under 5 million and Wii Fit coming in fourth place, selling a bit more than 3,5 million. The fifth place is taken by Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which sold 3,475,000 copies this year.
With the imminent release of GTA IV on the PC and with DLC coming to the Xbox 360 version of the game, it might be that the title will get the crown of best sold game of the year.