CLIP PopCap Games’ retail revenues up 85 percent in 2008

from VentureBeat by Dean Takahashi

PopCap Games said its U.S. retail revenues for PC games were up 85 percent in 2008. The Seattle-based maker of casual games managed to do that in a year when U.S. PC retail game sales fell 14 percent.

The private company doesn’t release sales figures. The results were reported by market research NPD. The biggest part of the growth happened in the fourth quarter thanks to the launch of Bejeweled Twsit, the latest game in PopCap’s huge Bejeweled franchise. PopCap’s games are now sold in 20,000 North American stores.

Bejewled Twist ranked at No. 8 on the best-selling PC titles during the peak December month. Other top sellers in the year were Bejeweled 2, Zuma, Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb and Mystery P.I. — The Lottery Ticket. PopCap now has 15 titles available at retail, up from 10 in 2007.  Bejeweled has sold more than 25 million copies across all game platforms.