Addicted to the gaming console numbers? Don't worry, the NPD Group decided not to push through with cutting back gamers' monthly fix of hardware sales data. Read on to find out more!

Studying sales charts, even that of console and video game sales, can be pretty painstaking work, especially if you're not really a fan of numbers. Studying charts however, is useful for a number of reasons as NPD Group">David Riley of the NPD Group explains to GamePro.

Not only is sales data relevant to knowing which of the consoles sold the most, but it's also relevant to predicting future sales trends and outcomes making it easier for us as consumers to choose, and for developers - as providers for our video game fix - to know what games we like.

Riley, who has spent a considerable amount of time with the NPD Group (studying charts), relates how the current trends in the video game market is not only in the rise, but also expanding into new horizons:

The industry is growing at a rate not seen in most other forms of entertainment, and I'm not just referring to sales performance. [...] Digital downloads are on the rise, PC gaming is becoming increasingly important to the industry, casual games are picking up speed (and that's an understatement), mobile phones have become viable gaming platforms, gamer demographics are shifting, gamer segmentation isn't as cut and dry as it used to be, entirely new genres are being created, online gaming is now commonplace, etc., etc.

When asked about how the current consoles will fare in relation to past console sales, Riley explains that it's too early to say:

I am concerned that there aren't a lot of titles on the market that have mass appeal, but this is typical during the first year of a platform's lifecycle, so I'm optimistic that the holiday season and early 2008 will begin delivering what we all want - plenty to choose from.

He was also asked whether there was a chance handhelds would become more popular than consoles. His answer was a simple no, judging from past data:

[...] It's unlikely at this time but that's not to say it's impossible. After all, the GBA is the most popular portable in the history of games. Where does the GBA stand in the grand scheme of things? Looking at U.S. sales, the PS2 has sold almost 39 million units, while the GBA has sold 36 million.