MCV can reveal that the period between December 31st and March 31st saw UK software unit sales and revenues reach an all-time high.

ChartTrack’s quarter one software figures show that year-on-year unit sales rose 15 per cent to a record-breaking 15.62 million, while revenues reached a whopping £317.1m, up 13 per cent on 2006’s quarter one period.

“The increases in the console market are due to the incremental sales of Nintendo Wii and Sony’s PS3, as well as massive increases in the DS, which almost quadrupled unit sales and more than tripled revenues,” said the report. “The Xbox 360 markets have more than doubled units and almost doubled revenue.”

However, the successful ‘next-gen’ software sales on both units and value was tempered by steep declines for the PS2 and Xbox markets.

Sony’s ageing console saw year-on-year units fall 19.8 per cent from 4.65m to 3.73m, whilst units on Xbox declined 71.2 per cent from 1.04m to 0.30m units.

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In addition, PS2 software revenues declined 29.6 per cent – almost £28m – compared to Q1 2006, from £93.01 to £65.49. Xbox fared even worse, with revenues dropping a particularly dramatic 82 per cent – from £17.57m down to £3.16m.