Games are recession proof

The US economy may be teetering on the brink of recession, but that hasn’t stopped computer game sales booming, according to NPD Group research reported in Time.com.

The study found computer game sales in the US shot up by a startling 57% in March to $US1.7 billion, despite the gloom pervading the economy.

The games boom was primarily driven by a surge in purchases of Nintendo’s Wii system and its games – the Super Smash Bros: Brawl game for the system was the biggest selling for the month, with 2.7 million copies of the game sold.

Overall, game sales for the month went up 63% to $US945.6 million and hardware sales increased 46% to $US551 million. More than 700,000 of the popular Wii systems were sold, up 67% on February.

“You’d never know that the US economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier told Time.