Guitar Hero III Surpasses $1B in Sales

While it’s no secret that Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise has seen some pretty stiff competition from MTV’s Rock Band series, that doesn’t mean the game’s still not a heavy hitter for Activision. During a speech at CES in Las Vegas on Friday, Activision’s CEO Mike Griffith said that, over the holiday shopping season, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock became the first game in history to ever hit more than $1 billion in sales. According to sales data, the Guitar Hero franchise as a whole passed the $1B mark in January of last year, just 26 months after the series had first launched.

According to Griffith, the success of Guitar Hero is bleeding over into other industries as well, with download sales for artists appearing in Guitar Hero games rising 15 percent to as much as over 800 percent in some cases. Griffith also said that roughly two-thirds of non-musicians exposed to music games now plan to start playing a real instrument within the next couple of years, while three quarters of musicians surveyed said they’ve spent even more time with their real life instruments since picking up a music game.

Griffith also took the opportunity to address the overall video game industry, saying games are “poised to eclipse all other forms of entertainment in the decade ahead.” Griffith pointed to slow growth and even a decline in sales in movies, music, and print media in the four years from 2004 and 2007. Meanwhile, software sales for the same timeframe showed a 40 percent jump in sales numbers. According to Griffith, “These are all stagnant or contracting entertainment markets. Gaming is growing and capturing a larger share of all media.”