It looks like gamers are rebelling against the credit crunch, or at least trying to play their way out of financial misery, with the release of the latest sales figures for gaming consoles. UK sales of the main five consoles (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and the PSP) soared from 8.8m to 17.3m units within the space of a year.

According to GfK Chart Track, the Nintendo Wii is officially the big winner with sales increasing from 1.1million units in September 2007 to a staggering 3.6million units in September 2008.

Sales of the Xbox 360 grew from 1.3million units to 2.3million giving it the lead over the PS3 with sales that grew from 400,000 units to 1.4million units, all in the same amount of time.

Games on the go have also grown in popularity with the Nintendo DS almost doubling their sales in a year, from 3.8million to 7.1million units. Sony’s PSP had a similar story to its PS3, with rising sales but only from 2.2million units to 2.9million.

The trend harks a little to the boom in the movie industry at the time of the Great Depression. When all you hear is bad news, the need to escape becomes paramount; and what better way than by taking charge of the 101st Airborne Division and blasting the night away.

Source: Register Hardware

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