Physical sales of video games in the UK fell 19,8% last year compared to 2018. According to GfK, 17,6 million boxed games were sold by retailers. Revenue from them amounted to Β£602,5 million, down 21,7% compared to the previous year. Digital sales rose, but grew by just 1,1% to Β£3,17 billion (IHS estimates). The data was compiled together by ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association).
Collectively, UK games sales in 2019 were Β£3,77 billion, down 3,4% on 2018. Since 2012, revenue has declined for the first time in the UK gaming software market. This isn't particularly surprising given that 2019 marks the end of the modern console cycle, a phase at which sales tend to slow down (much like they did in 2012, the year before the PS4 and Xbox One arrived). There were relatively few truly big launches in 2019βof the ten best-selling boxed games in 2019, only six were released last year.
ERA chief executive Kim Bayley said: "The key message for the games business in 2019 is that we need those two new consoles from PlayStation and Xbox, and fast." Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X are due to be released at the end of 2020.
The most successful boxed game was FIFA 20, which sold 1,5 million copies - however, this is significantly less than FIFA 1,9's 19 million copies in 2018. number 2 sold 1,192 million copies versus 1,172 million . It's also worth noting that Black Ops 4 outsold Modern Warfare in 2018 in 2019.
There were no other games whose sales on physical media exceeded 1 million copies in the UK. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe is in 3rd place with 465 copies sold. The 062 Nintendo Switch game sold 2017 more copies in 2019 than in 7000.
Story-driven action movie released by EA for Christmas took fourth place with a circulation of 438 games, which is better than (313 copies in the same period). Meanwhile ranked 5th with a circulation of 306. The game from Take-Two took second place in 392.
If GfK combined sales , then the projects would be in 5th place behind Star Wars with just under 430 games sold. Instead, Pokemon Sword enters the list at No. 000 with 7 copies. I wonder what 6 years after its release it is still in the top ten.
Here are the UK's top ten (on physical media) for 2019 (data from GfK):
- FIFA 20 - 1 copies;
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - 1 copies;
- Mario Kart 8: Deluxe - 465 copies;
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - 438 copies;
- Red Dead Redemption 2 - 306 copies;
- FIFA 19 - 278 copies;
- Pokemon Sword - 273 copies;
- β 267 copies;
- Grand Theft Auto V - 247 copies;
- β 237 copies.
Source: 3dnews.ru