Source Golem.de/GFK (German).

Rund 282 Millionen Euro haben deutsche Konsumenten im ersten Halbjahr 2008 für Konsolenspiele ausgegeben, meldet Media Control GfK. Das entspricht einem Wachstum von 38,7 Prozent im Vorjahresvergleich.

Germanys customers have spent about 282 Million Euro for console games in the first half of the year 2008 ... that is a growth of 38.7% year over year.

Der Umsatz ist stärker gewachsen als die Stückzahl: Um 30,5 Prozent auf 7,7 Millionen Einheiten stieg die Zahl der verkauften Spiele im ersten Halbjahr 2008; vor einem Jahr waren es noch 5,9 Millionen Konsolenspiele. Mit 36,4 Prozent Anteil an der Gesamtverkaufsmenge aller Videospiele ist der DS von Nintendo klarer Marktführer, allerdings sieht Media Control GfK auch die Next-Generation-Konsolen Wii, Xbox 360 und Playstation 3 im Aufwind. Besonders stark zugelegt hat die Playstation 3. PS3-Spiele erreichten in den ersten sechs Monaten 2008 10,9 Prozent Marktanteil, im Vergleichszeitraum waren es 2,9 Prozent.

The revenue has grown more than the number of units.  That growed 30.5% to 7.7 million sold games in the first half of 2008. .... With 36.4% of games sold, the clear market leader is the DS from Nintendo. ... Especialy the PS3 game market growed rapidly. The PS3 had 10.9% market share in the first half of 2008. It was 2.9% in the first half of 2007.

Das bestverkaufte Spiel im ersten Halbjahr war laut Media Control GfK Mario Kart für Nintendo Wii. Auf Platz zwei folgt GTA 4 auf der Playstation 3, auf Platz drei landet Dr. Kawashima: Mehr Gehirn-Jogging. Die drei beliebtesten Genres waren Arcade, Sport und Simulation. Denkspiele kletterten von Rang neun im vergangenen Jahr auf Platz fünf. 

The best sold game in the first half of the year was, according to Media Control GFK, Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii. The second place goes to GTA 4 on the Playstation 3. On the third place lands Dr. Kawashima: More brain training. ....

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Mario Kart #1? Not bad ;)

Not bad, the German market is growing fast... well, we have 80 million people it was time for it to grow... nice find, Ben

Here is the original press release from GFK:
http://www.media-control.de/pressemitteilungen/boom-bei-konsolenspielen-haelt-an.html

There some other intresting infos, on the market share of the software markets:

No wonder.
With all the Wii & DS advertising at all the german TV stations.
It's like 24/7.

Mario kart WIIII!!!

Mentioning the PS3 because it has the biggest growth rate and no seperate numbers for PSP and X360 is a little bit strange .... but it was still a good read. And I didn't knew that the PS2 is still so strong in my home country.

Here's a complete English translation (my own version - I'm fluent in German):


"Boom continues for console gaming"
July 10 2008

The videogame market is definitely on a growth path. In the first half of 2008, 282 million euros of console games were sold - an increase of 38.7% compared to the same period last year. Software sales increased to 7.7 million units. This corresponds to an increase of 30.5% compared to the first half of 2007. Previously, 5.9 million games were sold. Media Control GFK announced this on the basis of weekly market sampling. Ulrike Altig, the head of Media Control GfK, noted: "Console games, whether for the living room or as mobiles, are an established part of today's consumer culture."

Among the winners, along with Nintendo's DS handheld, include the Nintendo Wii, the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox360. Gamers acquired a total of 2.8 million games for handhelds in the first half of this year. In the same period last year, the number was 1.7 million.

The sales volume of Wii games rose year to year roughly fourfold. At the same time, the Wii's market share of software revenues rose from 5% to 14.6%. PS3 games achieved 10.9% market share in the first six months of 2008. In the previous year, it was 2.9%. Both home consoles rose to number three and four. Sony's PS2 remained in second place at 22%, while losing around 18% of market share.

The rise of the next-generation consoles is confirmed by a glance at the top ten list of bestselling games in the first half of the year. The top seller was "Mario Cart" for the Nintendo Wii. In second place was "Grand Theft Auto IV" for Sony's PS3. Rounding out the top three was "Dr. Kawashima: More Brain Exercises" for the Nintendo DS. All in all, the list of bestsellers was split five each between handhelds and next-gen offerings.

The three most popular genres were arcade, sports and simulations. Puzzle-solving games climbed from ninth last year to fifth place.

Well GFK didn't publish them. But we can assume that there both under 10%, at least under 14% (since GFK said Wii is third). It seems that PSP and 360 sell nearly the same ammount of units, at least thats implied to me by the fact that the 360 isn't mentioned seperatly. I just did the rest to 360+PSP. Maybe there are still Gameboy colour games sold.

Nice to see the gaming market grow in ze Deutschland. Europe is going to be very influential this generation, and the hardware numbers prove it already.

This means that the last percentage includes all the other stuff like GameCube, X-Box, GBA, PS1 Games. Thanks for the clarification.