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Xbox and Elden Ring top the charts in busy March | UK Monthy Report

reksveks

Member
Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...top-the-charts-in-busy-march-uk-monthy-report

Summary
- Consoles up 21% on Feb, down 46% YTD
- Xbox up 61% on Feb
- Switch down 21% on Feb, Still #1 YTD
- PS up 45% on Feb
- YTD, it's Switch, XS, PS
- YTD < 325k consoles

- 2.77m games sold up 0.6% YOY(1.94m digital - up 10% YOY, 0.835m physical - download 15.5%)
- 70% Digital in March
- GTA V Next Gen split: 37% on PS, 28% on Xbox
- WWE 2K22 split: 56% on PS, 41 on Xbox, 3% on PC (First Week Physical splits was 72% on PS, 28% on Xbox, don't think we got digital numbers)
- Tiny Tina split: 50/50 before platform holders (First Week combined was the same)

XBOX IS TOP CONSOLE FOR MARCH

The 112,000 games consoles sold in the UK last month is a rise of 21% over February. However, so far this year console sales are down 46%, driven by continued stock shortages for PlayStation and Xbox devices.

Xbox Series X and S saw the biggest increase in sales during March, up 61% compared with February. Microsoft's family of consoles were the best-selling devices in March, which was helped by the arrival of more Series X stock.

Nintendo Switch sales fell 21% month-on-month but it is still the second best-selling console for March. The Nintendo platform remains the No.1 selling games machine of the year so far.

PS5 is still in third place as the console continues to suffer from shortages. However, Sony's latest machine did see a 45% rise in stock compared with the month before.

ELDEN RING, GT7 AND WWE ENJOY BIG SALES

2.77 million games were sold in the UK last month, a minor rise of 0.6% over March 2021, according to GSD.

Downloads accounted for 1.94 million of those sales, which is up 9.6% over the same period in 2021. Physical sales were 835,000, which is down 15.5%.

Last month the market was driven by a handful of very big sellers. Elden Ring was comfortably No.1 for a second month in a row, driven by strong digital sales on Steam, Xbox Live and PSN.

New release Gran Turismo 7 is at No.2, and the PlayStation game did particularly well at physical retail. 45% of its sales were for the boxed version, which made GT7 the best-selling physical game of the month.

Over 73% of Gran Turismo 7's sales were for the PS5 version (with the remainder on PS4).

At No.3 is Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5, which is up 45% in sales compared with the same period in 2021. This is because of the new PS5 and Xbox Series X and S versions of the game. The PS5 version accounted for 37% of sales, while the Xbox Series S and X edition claimed 28% share.

Other new releases in March included WWE 2K22, which reached No.5. 2K Games' wrestling franchise took a year out following the disappointing WWE 2K20, and it seems to have paid off. Sales of this new title are up over 164% compared with the first four weeks of its predecessor, which launched in October 2019.

56% of WWE 2K22's sales were on PlayStation platforms, 41% on Xbox consoles, and the remainder on PC.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is at No.6. Also from 2K Games, the Borderlands spin-off was most popular on digital platforms, with downloads representing 76% of sales. Sales split between Xbox and PlayStation was 50/50. The PC version was sold via the Epic Game Store, and that store is not covered by these charts.

The final new release in the Top Ten is Kirby and the Forgotten Land at No.10. Kirby may have charted higher, but Nintendo doesn't share digital sales so only physical sales are counted here.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, another game that released last month, is at No.20.

For March last year, there were fewer big games -- nothing came close to the sales of Elden Ring and Gran Turismo 7 -- but there was a larger variety of strong sellers, including Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, Monster Hunter and Super Mario.

XBOX CONTROLLERS JUMP IN SALES

A stronger month for Xbox console sales has paid off in the accessories market. The top selling gaming accessory of last month was the Carbon Black Xbox Wireless Controller, having jumped up 15 places. The Robot White variant is at No.2, rising 12 positions. The usual No.1, the PS5 DualSense Controller, slips to No.3.

At No.4 this month is the wired Xbox Controller (Black) from third-party peripherals company Power A. Rounding off the Top Five is the Ear Force Recon 50X Headset from Turtle Beach.

In total, 700,000 accessories were sold in the UK last month, a rise of 6% over February, but a drop of 29% over March 2021.

GSD February 2022 Top 20 Games (Digital + Physical)


PositionTitle
1Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
2Gran Turismo 7 (Sony)
3Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
4FIFA 22 (EA)
5WWE 2K22 (2K Games)
6Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (2K Games)
7Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar)
8Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Nintendo)*
9Horizon Forbidden West (Sony)
10Kirby and the Forgotten Kingdom (Nintendo)*
11F1 2021 (Codemasters)
12Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
13Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)
14NBA 2K22 (2K Games)
15Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (EA)
16Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (EA)
17Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
18Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
19Call of Duty: Vanguard (Activision Blizzard)
20Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (Square Enix)
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Great month for gaming in general. Even ps5 saw a 45 percent uplift over Feb, so they deffo got stock in for their big releases. 2022 is going to be crazy for hardware sales, I bet its going to be all over the place.

Looking forward to seeing what the companies make of this quarter on their earnings calls.
 
I do wonder just how much the pandemic and chip shortage is harming PlayStation and helping Xbox. I think it is conventional wisdom that if Sony had enough consoles they’d be far and away leading this generation, but as there are limits, Xbox have been buying time until their 1st party can get games out the door regularly.

When we look at what SIE had planned for their first year they had Sackboy, Demons Souls, Miles Morales, Returnal, Ratchet and Clank, Kena and Horizon all lined up. If there were the supply Sony anticipated when these games were planned, I suspect they’d have outpaced all prior consoles in terms of sales.

It’ll certainly help Xbox eat into marketshare and GamePass will help with that hugely.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the big SIE meetings. To an extent there is nothing they can do until the chip situation changes , but until then Xbox and PlayStation will be largely equal in terms of sales.
 

Jennings

Member
They skipped right over Horizon and talked about Kirby of all things. That game is catching serious shade lately.
 

Wohc

Banned
Microsoft continues to gain ground due to PS5 stock issues - as well as presenting a really attractive alternative for someone who can't find a PS5.

I think this gen is going to be close.
It won't be very close since all games are day1 Pc + Cloud and Sony is the older brand with much more fans. Just have a look at the fanboys on GAF. Xbox has like 10, PlayStation dozens.
 
It won't be very close since all games are day1 Pc + Cloud and Sony is the older brand with much more fans. Just have a look at the fanboys on GAF. Xbox has like 10, PlayStation dozens.
Are you really comparing fanboys on here to how it will be like when people go and buy console in the real world :messenger_tears_of_joy:
That not how that works im calling it now this will be like the PS3 & Xbox 360 days all over again
Xbox buying up Bethesda and Activision Blizzard will have a major impact for this gen
 
Microsoft continues to gain ground due to PS5 stock issues - as well as presenting a really attractive alternative for someone who can't find a PS5.

I think this gen is going to be close.
If by close you mean "MS is able to produce more units" and not related to actual demand then for now yes. Things could change if Sony starts paying more to have those units produced though. Which they probably will have to.
 

tommib

Member
Elden Ring is probably at 20 million already, no? What a monster.

Not surprised about Horizon. People are getting fed up of this bland busywork open-world formula with pretty tropical beaches. Sony needs to rethink their investments in this kind of game. We’re reaching saturation.

Well done on GT7. It had a bumpy start but the game is ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐️.
 
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Lol by your logic then Nintendo would be doomed! Nintendo fanboys on gaf…1, 2 maybe? Where are they? Do they exist? Or are they just mythical creatures?
LOL Nintendo fanboys exited the console war when Nintendo no longer want to compete with Playstation and Xbox on power and graphics
so there nothing left for the Nintendo fanboys to argue over that why you see only Playstation vs Xbox fanboys nowdays
hell even the PC fanboys have exited the war to :messenger_grinning_smiling:
 

Goalus

Member
46% down YTD, that's all consoles lumped together. I wonder what that number would look like for each individual console.
 

Markio128

Member
I wonder if the stock shortages are telling the same story worldwide? Crazy that we are so far into the gen and people still can’t get buy a console.
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
Is the chip shortage really to blame though? CPUs have been fine for over a year and GPUs have been getting much better this year. AMD not dedicating enough fab time to the APUs?
 

Zeroing

Banned
LOL Nintendo fanboys exited the console war when Nintendo no longer want to compete with Playstation and Xbox on power and graphics
so there nothing left for the Nintendo fanboys to argue over that why you see only Playstation vs Xbox fanboys nowdays
hell even the PC fanboys have exited the war to :messenger_grinning_smiling:
Interesting!
 

Wohc

Banned
Are you really comparing fanboys on here to how it will be like when people go and buy console in the real world :messenger_tears_of_joy:
That not how that works im calling it now this will be like the PS3 & Xbox 360 days all over again
Xbox buying up Bethesda and Activision Blizzard will have a major impact for this gen
Just kidding, but i think we can agree that PS has much more fans than XB. It's just the older brand.

The only chance for MS to get somehow close is if the casuals go for the S once crossgen games die, because of the low price and Game Pass. But i think Sony wins the hardware sales by at least 40%.
Lol by your logic then Nintendo would be doomed! Nintendo fanboys on gaf…1, 2 maybe? Where are they? Do they exist? Or are they just mythical creatures?
Nintendo and PC users are good guys, they don't war :messenger_expressionless:
 

Zeroing

Banned
I wonder if the stock shortages are telling the same story worldwide? Crazy that we are so far into the gen and people still can’t get buy a console.
I can go right now to Fnac Portugal and buy a Xbox but still no PS5. All I got to say is, selling Xboxes for profit… that window of opportunity is mostly gone.
 
Is the chip shortage really to blame though? CPUs have been fine for over a year and GPUs have been getting much better this year. AMD not dedicating enough fab time to the APUs?
Sony predicted to sell just 2 or 3M PS5 this quarter...if this doesn't show how bad things are i don't know what will.
If they could produce 10M units they will that's for sure. They rely on consoles a LOT more than MS...

I can go right now to Fnac Portugal and buy a Xbox but still no PS5. All I got to say is, selling Xboxes for profit… that window of opportunity is mostly gone.
Here in Portugal you can walk in store and buy a Series S for almost a year by now. I've even seen promos for Series S for 300 euros with 3 months Game Pass. Series X are now starting to be available.

I have yet to see a PS5 box just sitting in a store though.
 
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Zeroing

Banned
Just kidding, but i think we can agree that PS has much more fans than XB. It's just the older brand.

The only chance for MS to get somehow close is if the casuals go for the S once crossgen games die, because of the low price and Game Pass. But i think Sony wins the hardware sales by at least 40%.

Nintendo and PC users are good guys, they don't war :messenger_expressionless:
that I agree!
 

Vognerful

Member
LOL Nintendo fanboys exited the console war when Nintendo no longer want to compete with Playstation and Xbox on power and graphics
so there nothing left for the Nintendo fanboys to argue over that why you see only Playstation vs Xbox fanboys nowdays
hell even the PC fanboys have exited the war to :messenger_grinning_smiling:
Don't forget the 2K plus threads about whether the Switch is a console that should eb compared in sales to xbox and playstation or not.
 

Zeroing

Banned
Sony predicted to sell just 2 or 3M PS5 this quarter...if this doesn't show how bad things are i don't know what will.
If they could produce 10M units they will that's for sure. They rely on consoles a LOT more than MS...


Here in Portugal you can walk in store and buy a Series S for almost a year by now. I've even seen promos for Series S for 300 euros with 3 months Game Pass. Series X are now starting to be available.

I have yet to see a PS5 box just sitting in a store though.
Yep I never saw any PS5 in display either.
Also I think people outside of our country don’t realize but the selves for the big 3 are not evenly divided on the stores. You mostly get more Nintendo Sony and PC stuff on display.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
If by close you mean "MS is able to produce more units" and not related to actual demand then for now yes. Things could change if Sony starts paying more to have those units produced though. Which they probably will have to.

I think he means ‘close’ as in ‘games sell consoles’. And he expects Microsoft’s first party studio to hit their stride and come out with a lot of games down the line.


I expect the PS5 to comfortably outsell the Xbox Series consoles, but itll be much closer than last gen.
 
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How big is Elden Ring at this point? Seems to be a massive success, how far can From Software go?
 
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Riky

$MSFT
It may be they are getting the split between Series X and S better, there are some good deals to be had got another Series S for £170 new the other day, since a controller is £40+ it's unbelievable value.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
They skipped right over Horizon and talked about Kirby of all things. That game is catching serious shade lately.
It's pretty common that people, even in here, talks crazy about a Sony exclusive the first one or two months, then it's completely forgotten.

People just don't seem to notice this because Sony spits so many games out so they overlay.

Horizon is suffering from this. It hasn't been forgotten faster than the previous games, there just hasn't been a Sony exclusive after it to fast overtaking the spotlight.
 

tommib

Member
How big is Elden Ring at this point? Seems to be a massive success, how far can From Software go?
neverending GIF
 

Godot25

Banned
Great for Microsoft
They are releasing their first-party on PC too and they still manage to outperform Xbox One sales and shrinking the gap to PlayStation which is great. And we are still not seeing final form of first-party output of Microsoft.
Sony would be fine of course but I'm wondering if PS5 can manage to sell as much consoles as PS4 did worldwide especially when Xbox is real competition this time.

Series S was a great idea especially with chip shortages. Microsoft really struck a gold with that idea.
 
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