With 2016 now complete, GfK is reporting that 23.7 million boxed games were sold last year in the UK, generating £776 million. This is down 13.4% (units)/13.8% (value) compared to 2015, and can be attributed to the big drop seen by PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 software sales. There were over three million 360 games and nearly two million PS3 games sold in 2015, but those numbers were cut by more than half in 2016.
The major titles of 2016 also disappointed when compared to 2015’s, with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (the second biggest title of 2016) lagging 31.5% behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. In other comparisons, Watch Dogs 2 fell just short of the 500,000 copies Assassin’s Creed Syndicate sold in 2015, Steep performed worse than Rainbow Six Siege, Gears of War 4 couldn’t reach the heights of Halo 5, and Final Fantasy XV was outsold by Just Cause 3.
There were some bright spots in 2016 though, with FIFA 17 keeping pace with FIFA 16 and Battlefield 1 moving over one million copies. Looking at software sales by system, PS4 and 3DS were the only two to see a year-over-year increase.
As for the final week of 2016 in the UK, it was Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare at #1 yet again. Also, thanks to a discount on the 500GB Uncharted 4 PS4 Bundle (which accounted for 17% of all PS4s sold in the week, up from 6% in the previous week), Uncharted 4 was back in the top 10.
Here’s the top 20 best-selling games through retail stores in the UK for the week ending December 31, 2016, according to GfK Chart-Track:
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- FIFA 17
- Battlefield 1
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Watch Dogs 2
- Mafia III
- Rocket League
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (up 58%)
- Steep
- Skyrim Special Edition
- Overwatch
- Forza Horizon 3
- Dishonored 2
- Titanfall 2
- Gears of War 4
- Final Fantasy XV
- Minecraft: Xbox Edition
- WWE 2K17
- LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars Battlefront
Expect more details on the UK games industry in 2016 later this week.
[Source: GfK Chart-Track (1), (2), Games Industry]
