UK: video games sales for March 2017 (Nintendo Switch debut)
In its latest issue, MCV UK shares some sales data for the video games market in the United Kingdom (from GFK Chart-Track). Unfortunately, the situation didn’t fully improve in March (February 26th to April 1st), as sales by units are once again down, despite various popular releases last month… no to mention the release of the Nintendo Switch! Said sales did generate more revenue, though.
If we take a look at weeks separately, we can see a massive increase Year on Year for the first one: no surprise, that’s when the Nintendo Switch was released. Unfortunately, that’s the only week that saw an increase in March…
- Week 09, 2017 – 438,298 units / £17m (as opposed to 256,678 units / £7.8m in March 2016)
- Week 10, 2017 – 446,616 units / £16.3m (as opposed to 478,485 units / £19.3m in March 2016)
- Week 11, 2017 – 248,013 units / £7.7m (as opposed to 316,902 units / £11m in March 2016)
- Week 12, 2017 – 315,476 units / £11m (as opposed to 362,805 units / £11m in March 2016)
- Week 13, 2017 – 224,580 units / £7m (as opposed to 306,883 units / £8.5m in March 2016)
- Total – 1,672,983 units (-2.83%) / £59m (+2.43%) (as opposed to 1,721,753 units / £57.6m in March 2016)
Next: sales of games available at retail. On Nintendo Switch, 137 185 units were sold during the first month, generating £7,139,000. That’s way below the competition, but it’s not surprising given the difference in install base size… not to mention the Nintendo Switch itself became pretty hard to find in stores rather quickly.
On Nintendo 3DS, Software sales topped 71 000 units, which is less than last year during the same month (-14.73%, to be more precise). Not surprising, since the line-up was rather lackluster… to put it midly. The only notable title released is Mario Sports Superstars, and it didn’t really fly off the shelves. Nintendo 3DS Software sales generated £1,888,000, which is less than the Wii U due to Nintendo 3DS titles being (much) cheaper.
Speaking of the Wii U, a total of 50 189 units were sold Software-wise (-35.22% compared to March 2016). No doubt the drop would have been even worse if not for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
As for the Wii and the Nintendo DS, their sales were (as usual) totally irrelevant in the current market:
- Wii: 5,019 (-41.70%) / £59,000
- Nintendo DS: 1,673 (-51.42%) / £???
01 (01) PlayStation 4 – 824,781 (+13.79%) / £29,913,000
02 (02) Xbox One – 513,606 (-12.00%) / £16,579,000
03 (NE) Nintendo Switch – 137,185 / £7,139,000
04 (03) Nintendo 3DS – 71,938 (-14.73%) / £1,888,000
05 (06) Nintendo Wii U – 50,189 (-35.22%) / £2,006,000
06 (04) Xbox 360 – 28,441 (-76.40%) / £472,000
07 (07) PC Software – 21,749 (-51.42%) / £590,000
08 (05) PlayStation 3 – 15,057 (-77.58%) / £295,000
09 (08) Nintendo Wii – 5,019 (-41.70%) / £59,000
10 (09) PlayStation Vita – 1,673 (-75.71%) / £59,000
11 (10) Nintendo DS – 1,673 (-51.42%) / £???
So far in 2017, Nintendo 3DS Software sales are up Year on Year with 248 729 units sold (+7.9%). On Wii U, they’re down by 39.39%, and there’s nothing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild could have done (though as mentioned above, the drop would have much worse if not for that game).
On Nintendo 3DS, the best-seller is Pokémon Sun (ranked #27), with Pokémon Moon at #39. New Super Mario Bros. 2 makes a comeback at 40, too.
Via: BrunoMB (NeoGAF)
