The Mobile Entertainment Forum and NPD Group have announced a new initiative to launch a mobile games chart in the US – effectively doing for that market what ELSPA has been doing in the UK.

It'll begin as a monthly chart, compiled by NPD "in collaboration with MEF and its members". Does that mean publishers will be sharing their numbers, or are the operators involved?

The announcement says it will cover "popular games and total sales", but it remains to be seen whether that includes giving sales for each game – something ELSPA is still unable to do in the UK.

Glu Mobile is involved too – the press release quotes SVP of global publishing Jill Braff and describes her as 'a leader of the MEF Mobile Games Chart initiative'.

This kind of monthly chart could be a real boon for the industry, although the struggles faced by ELSPA in the UK – with charts often months out of date by the time they're released – shows that NPD has quite a task on its hands to meet expectations.