Canada posts record year for gaming

For those who wonder how the gaming market is like in Canada...

gamespot.com
For 2006, Canadian stores sold a record C$933 million ($796 million) on gaming, up 22 percent from 2005's C$765 million ($652 million) take. On the hardware side, the Nintendo DS topped all systems with sales of 374,000 units, followed by the PlayStation 2 (327,000 systems sold) and the Xbox 360 (252,000 systems sold). Of the newly released systems, Nintendo sold 84,000 Wiis, while Sony moved 45,000 PS3s. The Wii nearly doubled the PS3's total units sold, but Sony's system beat Nintendo's offering in December sales as both products bumped up against supply constraints.

As for games, the cultural differences between the US and Canada were reflected in the sales charts. According to the Canadian Press report, the best-selling game of the year in Canada was Electronic Arts' NHL 07 on the PS2 instead of the US chart-topper Madden NFL 07 for the PS2. New Super Mario Bros. on the DS and Gears of War on the Xbox 360 took second and third place on both charts

oh cool thanks!,. where you get this from?.. im not a bit surprised that a NHL game is the number one.. im telling you man this country is pure hockey. its all they dream, sleep, eat and shit about LOL. knew there were alot! less new consoles up here then in U.S.

I guess it's kind of like how Soccer seems to be the sport they go crazy about in Europe and some parts of Asia. Different strokes for different people..........

Either way, one thing for sure is that EA get's to cash in on all of this as they hold the big NHL and FIFA franchises. I'm surprised that so few consoles were sold up north, but it does make sense as Canada appears to be relatively undeveloped once you move away from the big border cities.