UK: Software sales at retail down by 6% in 2015
According to Gfk Chart-track, over 28 million games were sold in 2015 in the United Kingdom. While this number may seem impressive at first glance, it’s actually worse than 2014: -6%, to be more precise. What’s more, the drop is actually bigger than it looks, as 2015 had 53 weeks (2014 had 52 weeks). Total video game sales at retail generated £928 million, which is a drop of 2.2% compared to 2014.
Gfk Chart-track doesn’t say anything about the Nintendo 3DS, but reveals that sales of Wii U games increased slightly.
Obviously, those number don’t include digital sales, which means they are only accurate for the retail market and not the video game market as a whole. There’s no doubt said market is healthier if you take into account digital platforms.
Here’s the sales data for the UK in the past few years:
2015 - 28,000,000 units / £928m 2014 - 30,200,000 units / £948m 2013 - 34,500,000 units / £1,015m 2012 - 39,600,000 units / £1,046m 2011 - 55,400,000 units / £1,420m 2010 - 63,000,000 units / £1,530m 2009 - 74,600,000 units / £1,685m 2008 - 83,000,000 units / £1,911m 2007 - 70,600,000 units / £1,555m 2006 - 65,100,000 units / £1,360m 2005 - 57,500,000 units / £1,219m 2004 - 57,600,000 units / £1,247m 2003 - 53,700,000 units / £1,150m 2002 - 46,100,000 units / £1,074m 2001 - 45,000,000 units / £913m 2000 - 37,300,000 units / £732m
Finally, here’s the 5 best-selling titles in the UK in 2015:
1. FIFA 16 (Electronic Arts) - 2,516,079 2. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard ) - 1,928,813 3. Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks) - 1,126,929 4. Star Wars: Battlefront (Electronic Arts) - 1,018,884 5. Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two Interactive) - 998,726 / 6,010,432
