The bar chart compares the global sales of several types of digital games from 2000 to 2006. Units were measured in billions of dollars.
Overall, despite being released lately, the sales of online and mobile phone games presented an upward tendency over the surveyed time, while that of console games witnessed a converse inclination. In addition, handheld games consistently remained at the top as the most popular means of video games over the 6-year period.
As is shown in the graph, the initial point of handheld games (just under 12 billion) was twofold higher in comparison to that of console games (around 6 billion). In the following years, that sales gap was prolonged gradually, in tandem with the continuous growth in the sales of handheld games and the downturn in that of console games. By 2006, the market sales of handheld games peaked at 18 units, whereas the figure for console games terminated at one-sixth of that number, at only 3 units.
Although online games were lately introduced in 2001, their sales experienced a stable increase over the period, from about 1 billion in 2001 to 9 billion by 2006. Similarly, the sales of mobile games, which were initially released in 2002, rose steadily from 2 units to roughly 7 units at the end of the survey.