The sales for the video games sector ARE (or) IS increasing? Why is "sales" a plural noun when it refers to the number of items sold?

Question

The sales for the video games sector ARE (or) IS increasing.

According to the OALD, sales (plural noun) means the number of items sold. If it refers to the number, not the items, why is it a plural noun?

Second, should I use sales to talk about the money received by selling the items? If so, I feel that is is what I should go for here because in the original sentence, I mean the money is increasing.

EDIT TO CLARIFY THE QUESTIONS: Regarding my first question, I'm not sure whether I phrased it obscurely or not, but most people didn't really answer the question I'm asking here. I think Lambie's is the closest one so far, but I'd like to hear others' explanations as well. Of course, if sales refer to the items themselves, it should be a plural noun, but sales refer to the NUMBER of items. If it's a number, which is the definition in dictionaries, why don't we use it in singular form just like the word "number"? That's the real question here.

As for the second one, I have an English test asking me to report trends shown in a chart. The pie chart illustrates the online sales for retail sectors in Canada in 2005. Video games accounted for 23% of the sales, while food and beverage accounted for 32%. I think because there are different retail sectors involved ("sectors" is what the test uses), sales here might refer to the money received for selling units in these sectors because comparing the number of units in two sectors, while these units aren't even the same thing, is pretty strange. That's why I asked if sales refer to money (uncountable), why is it plural?

Answer 1

A sale is an event. To say that a sale is increasing is nonsense. The plural form "sales are increasing" would still be nonsense if it were understood in the same way. However the plural statement "sales are increasing" is normally understood quite differently, to mean either "the number of sales is increasing" or "the value of sales is increasing.

The definition of a word is an explanation of its meaning. It cannot always be used as a drop-in replacement for the word. The definition you cite for "sales" is a good example of this; "sales" is a plural word so it takes a plural verb, while "number of sales" is singular and takes a singular verb. The same applies for the alternate meaning you discuss; "value of sales" is also singular.

More generally, "borogoves are increasing" often means "some number relating to the borogoves is increasing". Usually the number is how many borogoves there are, but it could be something else.

As to whether "sales are increasing" refers to the number of sales or the value of sales, context is needed to make this clear. The statement on its own could mean either, but the OALD definition you cited is the more natural meaning in the absence of context.

Answer 2

As all of the other answers thus far have mentioned, "sales" is a plural word, so it takes "are":

• Sales of anvils are dropping.
• Sales of rocket ships are rising dramatically.
• Solid lead shingle sales are going through the roof!

But perhaps you are unclear about why "sales" is plural. (The "s" at the end is a strong clue, but of course we say, "Business is down" or "CATS is still playing on Broadway.") Maybe the following example will help, in case you still crave clarification.

You come to my store to buy a coffee mug. I take your money and after you leave, I tell my partner, "I made a sale!" Then your sister comes in and buys a mug. I put her money next to yours in my till and have made another sale. Three more people visit to buy items, and I am pleased that I have made many sales. Tomorrow (I foresee), two dozen people will come in to buy mugs. I will then say, "sales are increasing." It doesn't matter (for this point) how many items each person buys, nor how many wander in, look around my shop, and then exit without making a purchase. I have simply accumulated many sales.

To your second question, I can only say that the context needs to be made clear. One presumes that more units sold usually leads to more quatloos (or whatever currency) earned, but reports of "increasing sales" should be clearly labelled as to being number of units or gross revenue in quatloos, as the case may be.

Does that help any?

Answer 3

If you are reporting a sales increase and you are focusing on the number of items being sold it is usual to talk about “unit sales” as a natural number so that there is no ambiguity. “Sales” on its own usually refers to the gross money amount received and would be shown as such with an appropriate currency symbol. For the purposes of English usage, “are” would be used in both cases because “sales” is a plural.

You could say,

• Sales are increasing (there is a rising trend in money received from sales)
• Unit sales are up this year (we have sold more items this year than we did last year)

Answer 4

sales is the business and accounting term for what a business sells. And the verb should be plural: Sales [of whatever] were rising.

the number of items sold is an explanation, not the grammar of the term sales as used in business and accounting, which takes an s and is plural always.

Sales are up, sales are down, Sales are steady. etc.

That's why it takes an s.

[Please note: one would probably use: Video game sales are up, and leave out the word sector. There is a video game industry, but not really a sector [of the economy]. No, I haven't googled it but that is my opinion, though not central to the question]

For example, here is an explanation of the term Sales:

Sales
Your company is in business to sell something. If you own a grocery store, you sell groceries and similar items. If you own a flooring company, you sell and install carpet, tile, hardwood and other materials. If you run a consulting business, you sell advice. If you're an editor or interior designer, you sell expertise. Whatever your core business is, the money you earn from doing it is your sales, also called revenue. Many businesses are able to pull in money from sources outside their core operations -- by selling assets, for example, or renting out their excess warehouse space -- but such income doesn't get included in sales revenue.

Sales also known as revenue

The reason it is plural is this: If your company only had one sale of some good or service, it would not stay in business. The company has to have sales (of goods and/or services). When you sell, you make money. So the term sales is used so record what a company sells and how much revenue it takes in. So, the terms Sales, Sales Revenue or Revenue, are all used to state that amount of money in financial statements, with or without capital letters, depending on the publication and style guide of the company.

Here is a typical example: the Shelby Report

There you can see that sales are given in the billions of dollars.

Answer 5

'Sales' is plural, so it's "are".

If you use a singular noun (or noun phrase) then use "is".

• Sales are increasing
• Demand is increasing
• The number being sold is increasing

Answer 6

Sale is a countable noun. Compare:
Business is bad.
We're doing less business
In this instance the term business is uncountable and refers to the volume of sales.

“Yesterday we made only one sale.”
“This quarter we made fewer sales compared to the same period last year.”

Apple sold fewer iPhones this quarter but made more per device.
Apple’s second quarter earnings results are in, and the company reported iPhone sales of about 50.8 million units for a revenue figure of $33.2 billion. That’s not a big deviation from last year, in which iPhone unit sales were just 1 percent higher. But the interesting takeaway is that while unit sales decreased, revenue increased.
By Nick Statt (May 2, 2017)

The following extract is from an article by Reuters; dated 15 April, 2024.

Strong US retail sales boost first-quarter growth estimates
Sales last month were boosted by a 2.7% acceleration in online receipts, which followed a 0.2% gain in February.

The OP asks “sales refer to the NUMBER of items. If it's a number, which is the definition in dictionaries, why don't we use it in singular form just like the word "number"?”

If sales were singular, but it can't be because it ends with the suffix -s, we would see the third person singular forms boosts and was in the Reuters article.

However, in the expression “the number of sales“ the verb that follows should be singular.
…but the number of sales is very low
…the number of sales has dropped
… Even then, a normal value based on the home market price will not be used if the home merchandise is too dissimilar, the number of sales is too small, or if too many of the sales are below “cost.” _{Handbook of Commercial Policy}

We can therefore say:

1. The number of video games sales is increasing
2. Video games sales are increasing

Like others, I changed the OP's original—but slightly awkward—wording