Xbox LIVE Arcade is having a great year, according to an analyst group that reports XBLA has grown 13 percent, to $46.1 million in sales in the first half of 2010. The sales were bolstered by Microsoft’s Block Party event in March that netted millions on sales of Toy Soldiers ($4.6 million) and Perfect Dark ($2.4 million).

Further pushing revenues up is Microsoft’s continuing Summer of Arcade campaign that has pushed a host of excellent arcade titles on a frequent basis. LIMBO released last week to critical acclaim (and presumably large sales), and this month is seeing Castlevania: Harmony of Despair and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light arrive, which should help bolster revenue even greater revenue.

The study by Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE), predicts that XBLA will see an estimated $130 to $140 million in revenue by the end of 2010, which would represent a record year for the 360’s arcade offerings. This growth took place after a slow start to the year in which both January and February were down in growth year-over-year. However, the report claims that Microsoft saw improved revenues when they began to “aggressively promote price drops on dozens of titles,” when it introduced a Blowout sale in April that saw revenues increases of 50 to 200 percent.

Beyond that, the study essentially cited a forecast for even greater revenue thanks to Kinect shovelware, saying that “the possibilities of the platform may yield impressive revenues for Arcade developers looking to leverage the new platform for mini-games and unique, affordable experiences.

Oh well, it was almost all good news…