To be honest, I'm surprised that console sales aren't higher. Look around your house and count how many devices you have that can play cds. 10 sounds about right?

Now say there's 80 million households in America, that's 800 million cd players in the one country.

500 000 a week seem less impressive now.

Oh, and home entertainment product sell best during recessions and depressions, besides, if you're a bit short of money, would you rather pay $20 for a movie that you'll watch twice, say 4 hours total or $50 for a game that can provide you with at least 50 hours of entertainment, more if it's a great game.

i'm just thinking of 500,000 people in a picture.

then i think of all that mass of humanity going to gamestop to buy a console.

every week. that mass of people in gamestop.

doesn't make sense to me... :P

There's your problem. Gamestop isn't the only place that sells video game consoles, hell they're probably one of the smaller ones. Wal-Marts, Targets, Best-Buys, Circuit City, Toys’R’Us, even Radioshack. They all sell consoles. A lot of people probably get their game consoles the same place they get a lot of their things. Why go to a Gamestop to get one when you get one at your local Target and get some grocery shopping done in the same trip. Other people get things from the internet. My 360 was purchased from Amazon.com.

It's a mass of 500,000 people spread over thousands of shops of differing sizes and varieties. Not just Gamestops.

ROFL

I got to think worldwide.

This is a small portion of world's human population.

And also.........................

It may not make sense to you, but:

People use paper every day thinking they actually have REAL value. (Is just simbolic)

Girls starve because they think men like skeleton as a woman. They also dress like media said because they are afraid to dare to be different.

People passes whole life thinking "when I be a grown up things will be a lot better", but after that they miss childhood.

People think skin color changes anything. (Anyone with a reasonable knowledge in genetic and biology laughs of that)

THOSE are things that really doesn't make sense at all when you think abou it, but, happen.

You are just not vey good with number.

Relax, they actually are quite about right considering how mauch people earn in the world,

Firstly, people in China and India do play videogames.

Secondly, even taking away 2,5 billion people from world's popultion, we have this:

500.000/3.000.000.000= 0,00016%

sorry.. i just feel like something's wrong with the figures. they seem too large for me. i can't stop imagining 5 ozzfest concerts' full of people buying consoles every week...

Yep, these numbers are completely fictional. there is actually no console war, it is just a little game between Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and then ioi who decides all the numbers they are going to make up for these made up consoles

I c where you are coming from but the number are pretty accurate

There are 6,200 Wal-Marts and over 5,200 Gamestop stores worldwide. 1600 Targets, 1000 Best Buys, 1300 Toys R Us.

There are many more options for people to purchase consoles from, but just taking those, it averages to less than 12 people per day, per store. Those numbers aren't so hard to imagine, now are they? One console per store, every two hours. And in fact, it is much less than that, because there are many stores that I did not take into account, and millions buy online from Amazon or other places.

1.24 million consoles/handhelds per week seems like a lot, but when you spread it out over the entire world, it's really not that big.

I'm not sure if it has been said yet...but:

When the economy is at its worst...generally the entertainment industry thrives. People watch more movies and play more games so they can dull the pain in their lives.