One of the most feel-good stories of the year has got to be the unholy alliance between NPD/GfK/Enterbrain, that lets us see - every three months, at least - what the biggest-selling games are not in the US, Europe or Japan, but in the world. Last time we checked, the best-seller was GTA IV. This time around, for the quarter running from July-September? It's Madden. Madden, followed by daylight.

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Fans of our British sales charts will have some knowledge of the selling power of the Brain Training games, but really, they've only got part of the picture. They don't know how well it's been selling on the continent, and on the continent, it's been selling like hotcakes hot crepes. According to chart trackers GfK, over the first six months of 2008, the original Brain Training was the top-selling game in Switzerland, Belgium and The Netherlands. Germany's top-selling game over the same period was the sequel, More Brain Training. Spain's #1 was Brain Training, while it's #2 was...More Brain Training. Just so you know, the first Brain Training was released over two years ago, while in Europe, even the sequel's been out for over a year. Egads.

Brain Training dominates 2008 in Europe [GI.biz]

While we're treated to precise sales figures from Japan, and decent approximates from the US market, it can be a difficult thing to nail down European sales figures. And by difficult, I mean largely impossible. Not only is the continent split across dozens of nations and languages, but there have long been two companies collecting sales data for the region: GfK, who handled most of continental Europe, and ChartTrack, who were largely responsible for the British market. Well, as of yesterday, GfK now own a controlling interest in ChartTrack, bringing the companies together under the new name GfK ChartTrack Limited. Fingers crossed this means we can start getting not only some decent European sales numbers, but also regular pan-European sales charts as well.

GfK acquires ChartTrack [MCV]