Australia’s top 20 best selling games for first half of 2007. Aussie game market grows by 30%

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector's Edition for PCThe top 20 best-selling games list in Australia has been revealed, and the folks at Blizzard prove to have captivated another part of the world, with the World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade, coming out on top as the #1 best-selling game in Australia for the first half of 2007.

Five titles were on Sony systems with Square’s Final Fantasy XII coming in second place overall, God of War 2 in 4th and a couple of PS3 titles, Resistance and Motorstorm, coming in at 6 and 7 respectively. There was only one title each from the Wii and Xbox 360, with Twilight Princess coming in at #12 and Gears at #14.

But Nintendo came out on top overall with 8 of the 20 games on Nintendo systems, including a whopping 7 games from the DS.

Top-selling games in Australia H1 2007
1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, PC
2. Final Fantasy XII, PS2
3. Pokemon Diamond, Nintendo DS
4. God of War 2, PS2
5. World of Warcraft, PC
6. Resistance: Fall of Man, PS3
7. MotorStorm, PS3
8. Nintendogs: Dalmatian and Friends, Nintendo DS
9. Cricket 07, PS2
10. The Sims 2: Seasons, PC
11. Guitar Hero 2 bundle, PS2
12. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendo Wii
13. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, Nintendo DS
14. Gears of War, Xbox 360
15. Pokemon Pearl, Nintendo DS
16. SingStar Rocks! bundle, PS2
17. The Sims 2: Pets, PC
18. Nintendogs: Labrador and Friends, Nintendo DS
19. New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo DS
20. Nintendogs: Dachshund and Friends, Nintendo DS

And in other Australian gaming news, the Australian games industry has grown by 30% in 2007 so far!

Last year Australia had it’s best year ever, and 2007 has so far proven to be an even greater year, and it’s barely half-way through!

Between January 1, 2007, and June 30, 2007, more than half a million game consoles and 5.5 million pieces of software were sold in Australia. In value terms, the Aussie games market was worth A$414 million ($352 million) in the first half of 2007, a 30 percent increase from the same period in 2006. Hardware sales reached the A$150 million mark, while software accounted for A$264 million.

Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) CEO Chris Hanlon said that the last financial year (June 30, 2006, to June 30, 2007), the local market was worth more than A$1 billion, the first time the industry has surpassed the billion dollar mark. Hanlon said he expects the industry to easily eclipse A$1 billion in sales for the 2007 calendar year as well!

“I think for the games entertainment sector to have a 30 percent growth rate is pretty spectacular,” Hanlon said. “The indications are that type of growth rate will continue–I’m thinking the very high teens in percentage growth for the next six months as well. The big underlying factor is that gaming continues to attract new people and new customers.”