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[reksveks]

UK games sales were down 3.3% to £4.2 billion in 2021 compared to the year before, trade body ERA revealed in its annual report.

However, sales were up 13.9% compared to 2019's pre-pandemic figures. In 2020, the sector had performed exceptionally well with a 17.8% growth year-on-year due to COVID-19 lockdowns throughout the year.

ERA noted that the shortage of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X due to the semiconductor crisis has likely contributed to the market declining slightly last year.

Physical sales particularly dropped year-on-year, with sales down 20.8% compared to 2020 (and 15.1% compared to 2019) to £511 million, while digital was only down 0.4% year-on-year and up 19.4% compared to 2019, reaching £3.7 billion.

FIFA 22 was the best selling game of the year in the UK, with 917,000 boxed copies sold and 1.3 million digital units, for a combined total of 2.2 million copies.

Additional calculations; 87.87% of all revenue was digital and FIFA went from 51.9% digital to 59% digital.

Link:https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2022-01-06-uk-games-market-down-3-3-percent-in-2021

 

[DenchDeckard]

Yeah looks like the covid bubble is bursting due to lack of hardware and compelling software thanks to Covid delays etc. hopefully Sony and MS can get more hardware out there.

 

[ZywyPL]

Almost 90% revenue from digital already, wow. The pandemic might kill physical distribution sooner than I expect.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

It’s just upsetting isn’t it.

That FIFA22 was the biggest selling game.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

 

[ZywyPL]

It’s just upsetting isn’t it.

That FIFA22 was the biggest selling game.

Football is basically a religion in UK, so no surprise.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Almost 90% revenue from digital already, wow. The pandemic might kill physical distribution sooner than I expect.

Truck drivers crisis as well was a big factor, I guess.

 

[IntentionalPun]

That's actually not bad.. I'd hardly call a 3% drop a "bubble bursting"..

 

[ReBurn]

Almost 90% revenue from digital already, wow. The pandemic might kill physical distribution sooner than I expect.

The UK boxed charts threads are even more hilarious now. People arguing over who sold the most and which system is king in a pool of 10% of total game sales.

 

[Kerotan]

The shortage is a real shame.

 

[reksveks]

That's actually not bad.. I'd hardly call a 3% drop a "bubble bursting"..

It's not a bubble but heads up that the 3% decline includes an 8% growth in mobile. I need to see if they gave the decline in console revenue.

 

[GHG]

That's actually not bad.. I'd hardly call a 3% drop a "bubble bursting"..

Sometimes a 3% drop is all it takes for a company to go from being able to pay their staff/bills/creditors and not being able to.

Not saying it's the case here but the smallest of margins can have cascading effects in some instances. This is something I'm sure all the major companies in the industry will be keeping an eye on.

 

[Vognerful]

Sometimes a 3% drop is all it takes for a company to go from being able to pay their staff/bills/creditors and not being able to.

Not saying it's the case here but the smallest of margins can have cascading effects in some instances. This is something I'm sure all the major companies in the industry will be keeping an eye on.

based on the summary for the first post, 2021 would still be a good year for sales (13.4% more compared to 2019)

problem is many companies shareholder meetings will ask every year for more profit.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Sometimes a 3% drop is all it takes for a company to go from being able to pay their staff/bills/creditors and not being able to.

Not saying it's the case here but the smallest of margins can have cascading effects in some instances. This is something I'm sure all the major companies in the industry will be keeping an eye on.

It was expected across every industry that boomed from COVID, and they all.. well.. boomed last year.

If you can't plan for a 3% drop after such a massive increase, your company sucks lol

This was planned for.. known in the stock markets, etc. It's not going to cause some freak out or anything, it really is good news. It's likely much less of a drop than many expected, I know that's true of at least 1 large company in general that I worked with last year.

 

[IntentionalPun]

It's not a bubble but heads up that the 3% decline includes an 8% growth in mobile. I need to see if they gave the decline in console revenue.

That's a good point. Would have to see the breakdown, and it will vary by company as well.

It's interesting too.. this is why everyone wants to go into mobile, or expand more.

 

[PaintTinJr]

The UK boxed charts threads are even more hilarious now. People arguing over who sold the most and which system is king in a pool of 10% of total game sales.

I'm not sure if that's just comparing market size for 200m consumer base of consoles/PC games that we at Neogaf would typically be arguing over. The 500M is for optical/memory cartridge games, and the other £3.7b might including everything from smartphones, Steam Early Access all the way upto AAA game DLC - which might include DLC bought for optical and memory cartridge games, so technically not a pure digital purchase either.

I suspect the £500m physical sales are far more representative of how AA and AAA marketing budgets should be scaled for the UK market than the £3.7 billion figure.

 

[Goalus]

Almost 90% revenue from digital already, wow. The pandemic might kill physical distribution sooner than I expect.

That is indeed relevant information, but I think the UK boxed sales will nonetheless remain THE most important performance metric for the foreseeable future.

 

[Kacho]

The digital split is the real news here. It's been majority digital for years now but 90% is insane.

 

[GHG]

based on the summary for the first post, 2021 would still be a good year for sales (13.4% more compared to 2019)

problem is many companies shareholder meetings will ask every year for more profit.

Yep, it's typical that single year outsized growth results in elevated targets that are often unsustainable.

It was expected across every industry that boomed from COVID, and they all.. well.. boomed last year.

If you can't plan for a 3% drop after such a massive increase, your company sucks lol

This was planned for.. known in the stock markets, etc. It's not going to cause some freak out or anything, it really is good news. It's likely much less of a drop than many expected, I know that's true of at least 1 large company in general that I worked with last year.

You would be surprised at the number of companies that are not equipped to survive very long without revenue being sustained. Also a lot of the greed and desperation on show at the moment from some publishers is enough to tell you they are speculating and have been for at least the last decade.

Also we need to wait until the Q3 FY2022 earnings from the likes of EA/TTWO/ATVI to see whether any drop off is already baked into their market caps or not - it's the most lucrative quarter of the year for these companies. With the way that a lot of stocks have been destroyed due to not being able to sustain their COVID jumps in revenue/growth I wouldn't be surprised if they also suffer the same fate.

 

[Woopah]

Almost 90% revenue from digital already, wow. The pandemic might kill physical distribution sooner than I expect.

The UK boxed charts threads are even more hilarious now. People arguing over who sold the most and which system is king in a pool of 10% of total game sales.

The digital split is the real news here. It's been majority digital for years now but 90% is insane.

To be clear, the 90% revenue includes DLC, microtransactions, downloadable titles and loot boxes. It's not a split been full physical game sales and digital game sales.

 

[ZywyPL]

That is indeed relevant information, but I think the UK boxed sales will nonetheless remain THE most important performance metric for the foreseeable future.

For internet console warriors, sure, but not for the actual publishers.

 

[Boss Mog]

If there was enough supply of PS5 to meet demand I imagine the market would've grown.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Digital revenue at 90% doesn't mean digital sales are at 90%. Keep in mind that all MTX/DLC count towards digital revenues.

I think this article is sort of mixing that up; Fifa being 59% digital is probably lower than a non-casual game, but the entirety of game sales are unlikely to be at 90% digital if Fifa is at ~60. Fifa's 'digital vs physical revenue' would also not be 60% and would be something quite a bit higher with all of the MTX.

 

[reksveks]

As others have said, digital revenue isn't the same as digital full game sales; it includes DLC and MTX.

 

[Kacho]

Physical sales were also down 20%.

 

[kingfey]

It’s just upsetting isn’t it.

That FIFA22 was the biggest selling game.

If you are american, i can I understand why you think that.

Fifa is like what American football/basketball is to Yankees. They have big Europe teams, that play football. UK has the premier league, with the likes of Arsenal, Manchester united, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Spurs. Outside of UK, you have Bundesliga (Bayern Munich), La Liga (Barcelona, and Real Madrid), Serie A (Juventus, both Milan), and UberEATS (PSG). These are household names all around the world.
There is also lower division for these leagues. America continents, africa, and asia have their own league. You have the world cup. You have the Europe world cup, and other continent world cups. Each countries from the world compete in these type of competition.

Its normal for Fifa to be so big.

 

[Deerock71]

That's actually not bad.. I'd hardly call a 3% drop a "bubble bursting"..

 

[SLB1904]

Let's concern troll and forget pandemic boost gaming like crazy in 2020

 

[NickFire]

Let's concern troll and forget pandemic boost gaming like crazy in 2020

I don't think anyone is concern trolling. Rather, I think pretty much everyone agrees with this 100%.

 

[M1chl]

Oh no last remaining retail market on the world...

 

[Kdad]

Sometimes a 3% drop is all it takes for a company to go from being able to pay their staff/bills/creditors and not being able to.

Not saying it's the case here but the smallest of margins can have cascading effects in some instances. This is something I'm sure all the major companies in the industry will be keeping an eye on.

Question because I truly don't know. If this is measurings $ sales of individual units...how is streaming like Gamepass accounted for? Companies could very well be making more off their game releases but it doesn't show up in sales here because it isnt' a unit sale?

 

[GHG]

Question because I truly don't know. If this is measurings $ sales of individual units...how is streaming like Gamepass accounted for? Companies could very well be making more off their game releases but it doesn't show up in sales here because it isnt' a unit sale?

As in a company that has received a certain amount of money to put the game on the service?

If that's the case then they will either just file it as revenue that specific game has made in "sales" or file that revenue under a miscellaneous "other" section.

Example:

The Medium has already recouped production and marketing costs

Bloober Team's The Medium recouped its production and marketing costs within a day of its initial release.The Polish fi…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Unit sales as a number doesn't really count for much anymore in the grand scheme of things considering all the DLC/microtransactions (and NFT's soon...), and all the other potential day one revenue windfalls such as subscription services or even going Epic games store exclusive on PC. They will simply state the total amount of revenue that's come in that's tied to a particular game after a specific milestone has been reached.

 

[STARSBarry]

Wait physical sales decreased and digital increased.... during a pandemic? Who would of thought.

So where looking at a near 60/40 split for digital vs physical at least for FIFA, be intresting to see if this swings back a little once the pandemic is over (if it ever truly is)

 

[Iced Arcade]

Damn those boxed sales

 

[Kdad]

As in a company that has received a certain amount of money to put the game on the service?

If that's the case then they will either just file it as revenue that specific game has made in "sales" or file that revenue under a miscellaneous "other" section.

Example:

The Medium has already recouped production and marketing costs

Bloober Team's The Medium recouped its production and marketing costs within a day of its initial release.The Polish fi…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Unit sales as a number doesn't really count for much anymore in the grand scheme of things considering all the DLC/microtransactions (and NFT's soon...), and all the other potential day one revenue windfalls such as subscription services or even going Epic games store exclusive on PC. They will simply state the total amount of revenue that's come in that's tied to a particular game after a specific milestone has been reached.

Oh I understand the publisher/dev will still count revenue...my question is more about this reported 3% drop...seems to be measuring a revenue drop off based on unit sales and if streaming services are not included in unit sales....its just going to keep dropping year over year and I agree with you...we need to be looking at revenue over all and not a revenue driven by unit sales.

 

[TastyPastry]

UK games sales were down 3.3% to £4.2 billion in 2021 compared to the year before, trade body ERA revealed in its annual report.

good

 

[FUBARx89]

To be fair, we've also been allowed out the house this year without any full lockdowns bar the start of the year. So it's not really that surprising.

The digital thing is huge though. I can't handle them figures. I have shitternet, don't do this to me fellow brits.

 

[GHG]

Oh I understand the publisher/dev will still count revenue...my question is more about this reported 3% drop...seems to be measuring a revenue drop off based on unit sales and if streaming services are not included in unit sales....its just going to keep dropping year over year and I agree with you...we need to be looking at revenue over all and not a revenue driven by unit sales.

Yep, I agree as well. If the drop in unit sales is offset by other revenue streams then it's meaningless as far as the publisher is concerned. Money is money.

 

[kingfey]

Wait physical sales decreased and digital increased.... during a pandemic? Who would of thought.

So where looking at a near 60/40 split for digital vs physical at least for FIFA, be intresting to see if this swings back a little once the pandemic is over (if it ever truly is)

once you go digital, there is no coming back.

the sales, the backlog, the laziness of switching games digitally will get you hooked.

joking aside, it depends on devs. if they see more digital sales, they will produce less physical copies.

 

[MrFunSocks]

FIFA will be one of the biggest physically purchased games due to bundles and no doubt gifting. If you’re in the UK and you need to buy a present for a kid, fifa is a sure bet.

Other games are significantly higher than 60% digital, we know this from publishers telling us.

 

[Three]

The UK boxed charts threads are even more hilarious now. People arguing over who sold the most and which system is king in a pool of 10% of total game sales.

Total revenue sure. Total game sales no. Physical is 41% of units sold for Fifa for example. Total revenue would include digital only releases and has nothing to do with unit sales charts or splits.

 

[ZehDon]

"When I was you age, little Jimmy, we used to go to the store, and buy little pieces of circular plastic that had the games microscopically printed onto them. And we got the game off of the plastic with lasers!"

 

[TwiztidElf]

Anyone remember Brexit?
/I'll see myself out tyvm.

 

[Captain Toad]

It's not a bubble but heads up that the 3% decline includes an 8% growth in mobile. I need to see if they gave the decline in console revenue.

Mobile gaming wasn't helped as much people stuck at home for COVID. Mobile hasn't been as affected by the current chip shortage that makes new consoles nearly impossible to find.

 

[reksveks]

More data

ENTERTAINMENT TARGETS £10BN IN UK SALES IN 2022 AS 2021 PRODUCES NINTH SUCCESSIVE YEAR OF GROWTH - ERA Ltd

Video revenues increased 13.3% in 2021 thanks to streaming. Physical music sales grow for the first time in 20 years. Games market has doubled in size in a decade.

eraltd.org

 

[Gankthenew]

It’s just upsetting isn’t it.

That FIFA22 was the biggest selling game.

I think it benefits from the comparison of another football game looool

 

[nightmare-slain]

"87.87% of all revenue was digital"

the age of physical is over. the time of digital has come!

i hope next gen both sony and ms abandon disc drives completely. is it still 2005 in their minds?

 

[Silent Viper]

Now we should stop posting UK physical sale chart numbers

 

[megreotsugua]

Almost 90% revenue from digital already, wow. The pandemic might kill physical distribution sooner than I expect.

Nothing is gonna kill physical. There's enough people to sustain the medium. That 90% revenue includes V bucks, free to play revenue, DLCs, I bet even subscription fees. Fifa 22 is almost 50:50 with digital and physical.

 

[reksveks]

Nothing is gonna kill physical. There's enough people to sustain the medium. That 90% revenue includes V bucks, free to play revenue, DLCs, I bet even subscription fees. Fifa 22 is almost 50:50 with digital and physical.

The number re fifa is there in the OP, 59% up from 51.9%. I wouldn't round it towards 50/50.

Using the additional data, so excluding mobile and I think dlc/mtx. Digital for UK games sales is 60% up from 56.6% the previous year.