GamesIndustry.biz have published the sales metrics regarding the state of the UK video gaming industry in 2018. Last year was an overall positive year for the industry, but as always, there are going to be some winners and some losers.
Nintendo had a stellar 2018 as a games publisher, taking the number two spot, behindEA, whichlost some percentage points, going from 17% to 14.7%, but is still the number one publisher. Take-Two Interactive climbed from seventh place in 2017 to take the third spot thanks to Red Dead Redemption 2. Below is a table of the 20 best selling Publishers and their respective positions from 2017 and 2018.
| This Year | Last Year | Company Name | Market share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Electronic Arts | 14.7% |
| 2 | 3 | Nintendo | 14.1% |
| 3 | 7 | Take-Two | 11.9% |
| 4 | 2 | Activision Blizzard | 11.6% |
| 5 | 5 | Sony | 9.6% |
| 6 | 4 | Ubisoft | 7.7% |
| 7 | 6 | Warner Bros. | 6.5% |
| 8 | 9 | Microsoft | 5.2% |
| 9 | 8 | Bethesda | 3.9% |
| 10 | 10 | Square Enix Europe | 2.4% |
| 11 | 13 | Bandai Namco | 1.9% |
| 12 | 11 | Capcom | 1.7% |
| 13 | 15 | Sega | 1.6% |
| 14 | 20 | Maximum Games | 0.7% |
| 15 | 14 | Codemasters | 0.6% |
| 16 | 18 | Sold Out | 0.6% |
| 17 | 33 | Gearbox Publishing | 0.5% |
| 18 | 21 | Focus Home Interactive | 0.5% |
| 19 | 17 | Team 17 | 0.5% |
| 20 | 17 | 505 Games | 0.4% |
Digital sales accounted for 80.1% of the games market, thoughhardware sales aren"t taken into account as far as physical sales go. In total, digital sales accounted for over £3 billion worth of sales, including all microtransactions, subscriptions and all extra content. This represents a 12.5% year-on-year increase compared to 2017.
Sales of physical games (in units) decreased by 7.1% year-on-year, although revenue from those sales only decreased by 2.8%. This is likely due to an increase in the average selling price, especially given the price of Nintendo Switch games. However, it seems many gamers still prefer boxed versions of major titles, as 75% of AAA games sales were still physical. The gaming market as a whole grew by 9.1% and is now worth £3.864 billion according to the Entertainment Retailers Association.
Below is a breakdown of the 20 best selling physical games of 2018 by units sold. As these sales figures do not include sales of digital copies it does not paint a complete picture, however, it should be fairly representative.
| Rank | Title | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FIFA 19 | 1,889,401 |
| 2 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 1,757,212 |
| 3 | Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | 1,172,855 |
| 4 | Spider-Man | 676,621 |
| 5 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe | 458,675 |
| 6 | Far Cry 5 | 434,133 |
| 7 | Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy | 430,551 |
| 8 | God of War | 399,395 |
| 9 | Forza Horizon 4 | 392,960 |
| 10 | FIFA 18 | 351,788 |
| 11 | Grand Theft Auto V | 339,805 |
| 12 | Spyro Reignited Trilogy | 333,725 |
| 13 | Battlefield V | 313,100 |
| 14 | Assassin"s Creed Odyssey | 305,937 |
| 15 | Super Smash Bros Ultimate | 284,155 |
| 16 | Super Mario Odyssey | 240,710 |
| 17 | Call of Duty: WWII | 230,576 |
| 18 | Pokemon: Let"s Go, Pikachu | 227,767 |
| 19 | Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 226,125 |
| 20 | Fallout 76 | 218,534 |
Looking at the sales of games on each console,the clear winner is the PlayStation 4, taking a huge 48% stake of all physical games sold. Xbox One took 30.2%, Switch had 16.8% with the 3DS taking 3% and PC getting 0.9%.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz (1), (2) | Image credit: High Snobiety