The runaway success of Nintendo's Wii console could help British sales of computer games to outstrip music and DVDs this year, according to figures published yesterday.

Nintendo's game platform sold nearly three million units in the UK last year, attracting fans from outside the games industry's traditional following of teenage boys.

Games designed for the Wii console, such as Wii Fit and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, appealed to a family audience and helped entertainment retailers to increase volume by 3.8 per cent and value by 5.1 per cent last year, even as Zavvi and Woolworths collapsed. Nintendo software accounted for more than half of the games software market, the Entertainment Retailers' Association (ERA) said. Although the year's top-selling game was FIFA 09, Nintendo had four of its titles in the top ten - Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Wii Play and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training.

The games sector contrasted with slowing video sales and a contracting music market. DVD sales make up 40.5 per cent of the market and music 22.8 per cent, but Steve Redmond, of the ERA, said: “The games software market needs to grow only another 10 per cent to overtake video. That could happen in the next six months.”

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