Video games outsell movies for first time, worldwide

Worldwide retail sales of packaged home entertainment rose 6% to $61 billion last year, with video games beating out DVD and Blu-ray formats for the first time ever.

According to international research group Media Control GfK International, games will grow to make up 57% of entertainment software sales this year, an increase from previous estimates of 47%. Game sales are expected to grow 12% globally this year to reach $36 billion, while DVD and Blu-ray combined should see a drop of 4% to roughly $27bn, though Blu-ray will again more than double, seeing $2.9bn.

The Dark Knight was the top DVD worldwide, with sales of more than 15 million units.

Last year game sales grew 20% to $32bn, largely driven by the Wii, while DVD & Blu-ray sales together dropped 6% to $29bn. GfK has predicted games would have actually grown 22%, and home video 1%, for which they now attribute the difference to the economic upheaval in 2008's second half, which is still ongoing and seeing many studios shut down or reducing their workforces in spite of the increases.