The United Kingdom game market rose 23 percent in 2008, lead by massive software sales gains by Nintendo’s Wii and DS platforms.

ELPSA/GFK sales charts for 2008 show that the Nintendo Wii sold 20.1 million software units on the year, up an astounding 153 percent from 7.9 million in 2007. Revenue also more than doubled for Wii software–481 million pounds in 2008, compared to 227 million pounds in 2007.

The Nintendo DS also saw strong gains, seeing a 28 percent rise in software sales. (19.1 million units in 2008, up from 2007’s 14.9 million)

Sony and Microsoft also saw tremendous growth in 2008, however, neither company managed to impress as much as Nintnedo.

For Sony, they saw PS3 software sales rise 145 percent from 2007 to 2008 seeing their sales rise from 4.2 million software units to 10.4. Revenues were also up better than 100 percent year-over-year, rising to 334 million pounds in 2008, compared to 156 million pounds in 2007. It is important to note that for Sony, these percentage games might be slightly exaggerated–the PlayStation 3 did not launch in the United Kingdom until March 2007, so 2007 numbers do not reflect any sales in the months of January and February, unlike the 2008 numbers.

Lastly, Microsoft saw 51 percent growth in their software sales in 2008, while revenues spiked 38 percent. The Xbox 360 sold 14.9 million software units (9.8m in 2007) , generating 442 million pounds of revenue.