Although we touched upon sales in the US already in last week’s News Wrap-Up, sales are up, up, up! A 19% increase in the market, according to the NPD group who released the numbers we quoted last time. Amid many studio mergers and closures towards the end of the year, the industry as a whole still had a lot of strength moving into the new year. It’s all well and good for the US, and for the industry as a whole considering the amount of money that their economy pumps into the channels, but how the rest of the world stack up when it comes to consoles and video game sales may be surprising to most people. For one, the US had the smallest percentage gain of any of the other regions that were announced, save for one region which saw a decline in the year’s sales. That of course was Japan, another subject that came up earlier this year and shocked quite a lot of people considering it is still accepted as the major hub of video games worldwide.

So which regions out-did the US in growth through the year of 2008? Well, the US’s friendly neighbour to the north managed to shine with a 23% increase in sales and a few other interesting figures to go along with it. While the Wii still took home the lion’s share of sales with just over 44% of the market share, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were at much closer figures than the sales just south would show. PS3 managed 21.7% of the market with the Xbox 360 edging it out at 25.5%. Considering the rough percentages for the US put the PS3 at around 16% of total sales between the home consoles and the Xbox only managed 22%, it seems as if the Canadian market demonstrates a more even keel between the platform adoption. Sony’s quick reactions to the parity of the Canadian dollar may have played a role in this, and their continued support for that parity although the dollar in Canada continues to dip.

The DS accounted for 76.5% of the 1.2 million portables sold in the country, as well, and the leads to the real shock of the numbers: the top selling software was not a Nintendo product! Harmonix’s Rock Band was the top selling product in Canada last year, followed by Grand Theft Auto and then the regular crew of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit rounded up the top four. No Wii Play. We’re still in shock. It’s not a huge impact to the overall market, however, as Canadians only accounted for about 3.1 million of the roughly, which is still less than how many PS3s were sold in the US alone last year.

Europe also had an exceptionally good year if you are a console manufacturer, with UK retailer GAME claiming that they have doubled sales from the previous year. 10 million happy consumers in the UK brought home a current generation console in the year 2008, putting the install base someone over 22 million units. This amid a report that stated that half of Briton would own a Wii by the end of this coming year, it’s no mystery why more attention is being devoted to world wide launches and the even spread of content across continents: Europe is a major buyer in the console market, now with an edge to Japan who sold 11 million consoles in 2008. It’s a shocking figure, but not surprising considering the race that has gone on to claim the territory from the companies who have historically had troubles gaining a foothold in the area. Nintendo has always been the second cousin to Sega through its most formidable years, and Sony has had nothing less than a stranglehold on the region since the PSOne era. With Microsoft also making a dent in that epic conquest, and the Wii set to roll over the entire universe, Sony is having to scramble to maintain their stance. The games have truly begun overseas.

UPDATE: Increasing the amount of worldwide growth, it seems, is Australia, who have grown almost 50% year on year with a 43% sales increase in hardware alone in the region. Considering how they have to put up with huge inflation of prices and massive wait times, it’s a wonder they stick with it at all!

While the US still accounts for the largest portion of sales in any given region, selling just as many Wiis at most other countries sold across all platforms, the numbers show that the industry is exploding at a much faster rate at different markets across the globe, and in similar but distinguishable ways. Canada’s penchant for rhythm games and one of the year’s most regarding hardcore titles is a shocker by any means, and Europe’s continued love-in with Brain Training and other Nintendo titles demonstrates a good area for companies to target going forward, and having to take a look back at where their marketing has gone wrong and right. It’s also a good indication that the strength of the industry is world wide, and while Japan did see a drop of over 15% in their overall market for games last year, they have seen the effects of a culture that is more about rapid adoption and is much more fiscally conscious during recessionary periods. Expect a similar effect to occur throughout the industry in 2009, though perhaps not as drastic, and at least we know that regardless of any fears that may be spreading across the news people still want to pay for games all around the world.