Wow, what a wild ride for the gaming scene in the UK! It seems like physical video game sales just hit a wall last year. Can you believe that revenue dropped by 4.4% to £4.6 billion? That’s quite the dip! It’s mainly because boxed games took a nosedive, bringing in only £324.4 million – down almost 35% from 2023!
This juicy info comes from the Entertainment Retailers Association, backed by Nielsen/GfK and GSD data. It’s sad to see how much things have changed since we used to rush to stores on release days with our wallets ready!
However, the digital market wasn’t shabby, raking in £4.29 billion from console, PC, mobile, and tablet sales. But even that saw a slight drop of 1% compared to last year. Here’s where it gets interesting: we noticed some variations within those categories too! PC download sales dropped by 5%, while console downloads plummeted by 15%. The bright side? Mobile and tablet gaming rose by 2.6%, plus subscription revenue up by 12%. Looks like people are still finding ways to play without hitting the shelves!
The best-selling title last year was none other than moving around 2.9 million copies! And guess what? A whopping 80% of those were sold digitally! Talk about going with the flow!
“After the breakneck growth of recent years, it is no surprise that the games market has slowed down,” said ERA boss Kim Bayley. I mean, who can blame them? Despite all this digital love, there’s still something special about holding that physical copy in your hands.
The outlook for next year sounds promising, though! Big titles are lined up for release, including Grand Theft Auto V and Nintendo’s upcoming Switch successor, though they haven’t spilled all their secrets yet! They’ve promised more info during this fiscal year ending March 2025.
