ELSPA (the Entertainment Leisure & Software Publishers’ Association) said today that a doubling in the UK games console base within a year is further evidence that the British games industry is now the most important in the UK’s creative industries sector.

Seismic sales performances for all games consoles have driven massive growth: the installed base of consoles in the UK has doubled from 8.8 million in September 2007 to 17.3 million in September 2008 and by the end of the year the figures are estimated to rise to 21 million. The figures are given further strength since they do not include sales for older second generation systems such as PlayStation2.

Whilst Sony and Microsoft have added a million installed users in the last 12 months, Nintendo has proven to be the biggest winner with an increase of some 2.5 million Nintendo Wii consoles and 3.3 million Nintendo DS handhelds.

From September 2007 to September 2008 the Nintendo Wii installed base has risen from 1.1 million to a staggering 3.6 million, while the Nintendo DS has soared from 3.8 million to 7.1 million. By comparison, PlayStation3 unit sales have risen from 0.4 million to 1.4 million and the Xbox 360 from 1.3 million to 2.3 million. Sony’s PSP handheld showed a comparatively moderate increase from 2.2 million to 2.9 million.

All figures were provided by High Street retail chain The Game Group.

Michael Rawlinson, Managing Director of ELSPA, said: “There can be little doubt that video games are now one of the major forms of entertainment in the UK. Not only that, our industry is proving to be remarkably robust in the ‘credit crunch’. The reason is very simple - games can offer terrific value for money. I appreciate that it is only violent or controversial games that tend to garner tabloid headlines but the truth is that the overwhelming majority of games sold in this country are for all players of all ages – and that is why the Wii with games such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit are proving to be amongst the nation’s enduring favourites.”