The UK interactive entertainment software market hit a new all time high in 2006, according to ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) as it reveals annual performance figures today.

2006 was an exciting year for the industry with a growth in sales, the industry enjoyed a 7% increase on units sold from the previous year taking the total to a whopping 65.1 million units sold. ELSPA happily announces these record sales of interactive entertainment software across all formats totalling £1.36 billion, an increase of over 1% per cent over 2005’s record figures.

Paul Jackson, Director General of ELSPA, said:"We are thrilled to see the industry growing and software sales continuing to rise. With the new generation consoles and new handhelds there are some amazing titles out there and consumers are continuing to enjoy them. There are new and exciting games available and more and more family orientated and mentally stimulating titles to grasp and hold the interest of all ages. This is also a testament to the industry and it will continue to gain momentum.”

With the popularity of the handhelds on the market, the PSP and the DS, and the next generation consoles titles it is fantastic to see that PC software sales are also continuing to increase. PC titles have had their best year in ever in 2006 with a huge 7% increase since the previous year.

Paul Jackson continued: “Although there are new consoles and handhelds for gamers its is great to see that the PC market is doing so well.”

The most popular console software was the PS2, followed by the Xbox 360, the Xbox, Wii and GameCube followed.

2006 was the year of the handheld too with the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PSP software coming in only behind PS2 software, with the DS slightly outdoing the PSP.