Where once the market was dominated by teenage boys, the widening appeal of computer games across all age groups and throughout the family was confirmed yesterday with the news that Britons bought record numbers of consoles and software last year.

Console unit sales hit 7.4 million in 2007, an increase of 45 per cent and equivalent to one in almost every three households. At the same time 76 million games were sold, a rise of 16 per cent. The value of all the games sold was an estimated £1.72 billion, an increase of 26 per cent, according to data produced by Chart Track.

Ben Keen, chief analyst at Screen Digest, said: “Games is a cyclical market and we are at the point where all three major manufacturers – Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony – are competing intensely. But it’s not yet over: demand has not peaked yet.”

Nintendo’s DS was the bestselling games device of the year, with around 2.5 million units bought, followed by the Japanese company’s living room-based Wii, which has a unique motion-sensing interface. “What’s interesting is that this year, in most of the big-selling games there hasn’t been a gun in sight, with titles like BrainTrainingorWii Sports,” a spokesman for Chart Track said.

Separate figures released yesterday also showed that there had been a record year for DVD unit sales, with volumes up 9.3 per cent to 250 million, helped by home movie-watching during the bad summer, the popularity of titles such as Casino Royale and sharp price competition. However, the British Video Association, which compiles the figures, conceded that the cuts in the cost of DVD prices meant that sales in value terms were likely to fall.

Music downloads rose by almost 50 per cent last year to 77.6 million, boosted by a Christmas rush, but the recording industry failed to halt a CD slump, figures from the BPI, the music trade body, showed. The total CD market shrank by about 10 per cent.

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