What's the biggest-selling game of the year so far?

A new partnership between three of the world's largest chart-tracking organizations made a dramatic debut this week with the release of 2008 video game sales data which combines -- for the first time ever -- figures from the world's three largest video game markets: the USA, the UK, and Japan. The Top Global Markets Report, which is to be released monthly, gives a previously rare glimpse of how gaming tastes differ across continents.

The figures -- which cover the period between January and July 2008 -- indicate Rockstar's crime drama Grand Theft Auto IV outsold every other game in those countries, sporting a total of over 6.2 million sales despite remaining unreleased in Japan. GTA IV remains the best-reviewed game of the year so far by a clear margin, according to review aggregation site gamerankings.com, and is slated for release in Japan on October 30.

Close on GTA IV's heels, Nintendo's Super Smash Bros: Brawl claimed second place, with a total of 5.4 million sales, although just 200,000 of those sales went to British consumers. Games for the Nintendo Wii also claimed third and fourth places, with Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit respectively. All three Nintendo games sold well in the USA and Japan.

The fifth best-selling game in the three territories was Activision's Guitar Hero III, which amassed 3.5m sales -- despite only managing a paltry 26,000 in Japan.

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