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UK SALES ANALYSIS: JANUARY
New Year’s cheer Despite fears over the economic climate, Janauary 2009’s games sales figures were up 37 per cent in unit terms and 21 per cent in value over the same period in 2008. Michael French looks over the monthly GfK-ChartTrack data to see what games offered the big gains for our booming sector… THIS LAST MONTH MONTH
[SOURCE]
(c) ELSPA, Compiled by GfK-ChartTrack
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 5 4 6 7 8 9
SALES SHARE BY FORMAT
UNITS
NINTENDO WII NINTENDO DS XBOX 360 PC PLAYSTATION 3 PLAYSTATION 2 PSP APPLE MAC OTHERS
24.3% 20.4% 19.0% 15.6% 12.5% 4.1% 3.6% 0.1% 0.0%
The Wii has made it three months on the trot as the biggest software format in the UK, while the DS has scored second place in that time, too. The Nintendo console’s ascent seems to have mostly eaten into the 360’s software share; in November the split was 22.2 per cent Wii and 22.1 per cent 360. Presumably, the big driver has been post-Christmas sales of back catalogue Wii games bought by those who got the console as a gift.
THIS LAST MONTH MONTH
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 1 3 5 4 6 8 7 9 16
SOFTWARE SHARE BY COMPANY ELECTRONIC ARTS NINTENDO ACTIVISION BLIZZARD MICROSOFT UBISOFT SEGA THQ SONY TAKE 2 SYMANTEC
VALUE
15.3% 14.8% 12.6% 9% 9% 5.2% 3.7% 3.6% 3.6% 3.4%
EA topples Nintendo in the post-Christmas sales (the data on these pages covers December 28th to January 24th). Most telling is that EA’s success is driven by its non-Nintendo format titles (as the format-specific charts below attest). As usual, Nintendo rules the full price and budget Wii charts and most of the DS top ten. Yet EA’s recent strategy shift towards Wii products could make for a very different story over the coming months.
THIS LAST MONTH MONTH
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 6 4 7 6 8 9
SALES SHARE BY FORMAT
VALUE
NINTENDO WII XBOX 360 NINTENDO DS PC PLAYSTATION 3 PSP PLAYSTATION 2 APPLE MAC OTHERS
24.6% 22.2% 17.3% 15.4% 14.9% 2.6% 2.6% 0.3% 0.0%
There’s a different story when you look at format share by value. Yes, Nintendo rules here, too – but in just a few months its share has grown by over four per cent (in November it had 20.7 per cent). Over the same period, Xbox is down 5.6 per cent, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the format is generating less on a monthly basis than it was pre-Christmas – just that the software spree sparked by its harware price cut may have subsided.
THIS LAST MONTH MONTH
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 1 4 3 5 8 6 9 7 17
SOFTWARE SHARE BY COMPANY ELECTRONIC ARTS NINTENDO UBISOFT ACTIVISION BLIZZARD SEGA MICROSOFT THQ TAKE 2 SONY SYMANTEC
UNITS
14.1% 13.2% 10.8% 10.4% 5.9% 5.5% 5.1% 4.4% 3.7% 2.7%
In a unit basis, publisher market share is quite different (once you get down the list past the reign of EA and Nintendo). Ubisoft, THQ and Take 2 all claim larger chunks of the pie, primarily thanks to their Wii and DS offerings – both publishers have titles and/or franchises which sell in large quantities at lower price points. As we revealed last week this is an area more are keen to target – such as Activision’s new Fun4All brand.
INDIVIDUAL FORMAT CHARTS: JANUARY 2009 NINTENDO Wii (FULL PRICE)
NINTENDO Wii (BUDGET PRICE)
NINTENDO DS
XBOX 360 (FULL PRICE)
1. Wii Fit (Nintendo) 2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) 3. Mario & Sonic: Olympic Games (Sega) 4. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision) 5. Rayman Raving Rabbids TV (Ubisoft) 6. Animal Crossing (Nintendo) 7. Sonic Unleashed (Sega) 8. Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft) 9. LEGO Batman (Warner Bros.) 10. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (EA)
1. Wii Play (Nintendo) 2. Carnival: Funfair Games (2K) 3. Big Beach Sports (THQ) 4. Big Brain Academy (Nintendo) 5. Guitar Hero III: Legends (Activision) 6. Wall E (THQ) 7. More Game Party (Midway) 8. Sports Island (Konami) 9. Guinness World Records (Warner Bros.) 10. LEGO Star Wars Complete (LucasArts)
1. Brain Training (Nintendo) 2. 100 Classic Book Collection (Nintendo) 3. More Brain Training (Nintendo) 4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo) 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo) 6. 43 All-Time Classics (Nintendo) 7. Mario & Sonic: Olympic Games (Sega) 8. Nintendogs: Lab & Friends (Nintendo) 9. Imagine: Teacher (Ubisoft) 10. Big Brain Academy (Nintendo)
1. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision) 2. Gears of War 2 (Microsoft) 3. FIFA 09 (EA) 4. Need For Speed: Undercover (EA) 5. Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft) 6. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision) 7. The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (EA) 8. Quantum of Solace (Activision Blizzard) 9. Call of Duty 4 (Activision Blizzard) 10. Fable II (Microsoft)