Many sources, including Cnet have picked up on the most recent video game sales data from the NPD Group. The data covers the first six months of 2004 and there are really few suprises. Total console video game revenue (hardware and software) totalled $3.4 billion. While the dollar figure of console hardware sales dropped 17% (due to price cuts) actual unit purchases were only down by 1%. Console software sales rose by 4%. In other words, people keep buying and playing video games. Read on to see the top 10 games of the first half of 2004.

1. Fight Night 2004 (PS2) - EA
2. NBA Ballers (PS2) - Midway
3. MVP Baseball 2004 (PS2) - EA
4. Fight Night 2004 (Xbox) - EA
5. Pokemon Colosseum (GC) - Nintendo
6. Halo (Xbox) - Microsoft
7. Red Dead Revolver (PS2) - Take-Two
8. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow (Xbox) - Ubisoft
9. Shrek 2 (PS2) - Activision
10. Spider-Man 2 (PS2) - Activision

Obviously, sports titles dominated the list, particularly EA sports titles. I'm fairly surprised by the "Red Dead Revolver" placement. It's a crappy game but the marketing blitz behind it obviously had an impact. And, then there's "Halo" which keeps hanging around, amazingly. People just love that game.