January 26

Ever felt like you're working in the wrong industry?



Having looked at the latest sales figures for computer software and games, I think I might just have ticked the wrong box in my school careers talk.

According to the (much too long-winded) Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (yawn), the UK interactive entertainment software market hit a new all time high in 2006.

The year marked a new record in growth in sales, enjoying a seven per cent increase on units sold from the previous year. (Okay, yawn again... that's the boring bit over with).

The total number of units sold in the UK was a whopping joysticktastic 65.1 million units.

No wonder the association rather happily announced that these record sales across all formats totalled £1.36 BILLION.

Now that is a lot of scoobies.

Despite the rise in popularity of handheld formats on the market (notably the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS - and the next generation consoles titles) PC software has also continued to sell increasing amounts.

This year was the best year ever for the sale of PC titles.

The most popular console software was the PS2, followed by the Xbox 360, the Xbox, Wii and GameCube (sorry, who?) followed.



These were the most popular game titles of 2006:



1. FIFA 07.

2. Pro Evolution Soccer 6.

3. Need For Speed: Carbon.

4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

5. Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy.

6. The Sims 2: Pets.

7. Cars.

8. Tomb Raider Legend.

9. The Sims 2.

10. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007.