According to a statement, games with the Entertainment Software Rating Board marks of "Everyone 10+" and lower accounted for over half of all sales. (Forty-five percent were rated "E" and 12 percent were rated E10+.)
Games rated "Teen" accounted for 27 percent of unit sales, while "Mature" games made up 16 percent last year.
The "family entertainment" category was the most popular, capturing over 19 percent of sales.
Videogame and PC game sales neared 300 million units last year at retail.
While the ESA's statement is clearly a move to inform the public that not all videogames contain sex and violence, Mature-themed games, even amidst a burgeoning casual market, continue to be highly important to industry growth, and garner high amounts of marketing spend from publishers.
Four of the top ten SKUs of 2008 were M-rated in the U.S.: Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360, Call of Duty: World at War for Xbox 360, Gears of War for Xbox 360 and Grand Theft Auto IV for PS3. Call of Duty: World at War and Grand Theft Auto IV also made the top five on the all formats chart, selling nearly 10 million units combined.
However, the top three SKUs in unit sales overall last year were E-rated Wii games. Family-friendly games took three of of the five spots (Wii Play, Madden 09, Mario Kart Wii) in the all-formats chart, selling around 15.5 million units total.
Last year, the U.S. games industry generated over $22 billion, which includes PC games, console games, hardware and accessories.