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UK Boxed sales | Metroid fastest selling Metroid in UK ever at #3, Alan Wake at #5 | Digital sales continue to shrink physical market

cormack12

Gold Member
Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...ng-metroid-game-in-uk-history-uk-boxed-charts

Last WeekThis WeekTitle
11FIFA 22
1New EntryFar Cry 6
New Entry3Metroid Dread
24Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
New Entry5Alan Wake Remastered
56Minecraft (Switch)
77Animal Crossing: New Horizons
New Entry8Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania
109Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
910Grand Theft Auto 5


The game at the top isn't new, however. That game is EA's FIFA 22, which holds firm at No.1 for a second week. The game dropped 58% in boxed sales week-on-week, which is quite a small drop for FIFA -- last year's game dropped 65% in its second week.

It's worth noting that FIFA sales at boxed retail have fallen sharply year-on-year. Currently FIFA 22's boxed sales are 32% lower than what FIFA 21 managed over the same two-week period (this is according to GfK's retail sales data).

However, the game has actually sold better than ever before via digital downloads, and as a result, FIFA 22 is currently beating its predecessor in the UK overall (digital download data is supplied by GSD, but arrives later in the week).

FIFA's closest rival this week is Far Cry 6 from Ubisoft. The game's boxed sales are almost 70% lower than Far Cry 5, which was released in March 2018. 47% of sales were on PS5, 24% on PS4 and 29% on Xbox platforms. The drop looks severe, but even in three years digital has accelerated significantly, and as we saw with FIFA, it almost certainly did a lot better than it appears.

We can be a bit more conclusive about the No.3 game. Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch is the fastest-selling Metroid game in the UK to-date, eclipsing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on Nintendo Wii. And that's without digital sales. It sold three and a half times more copies at launch than the last 2D Metroid Game: Metroid: Samus Returns, which launched on 3DS in 2017, after the Switch had some out.

Next on the new releases is Alan Wake Remastered at No.5. The original game was an Xbox 360 exclusive, so this is the first time the title has been on PlayStation platforms. And it seems to have paid off. 63% of the game's sales were on PS5, 21% on PS4 and 17% on Xbox consoles. The firm said in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz that it hoped Alan Wake would find a new audience on Sony's consoles, and the early evidence suggests that it may have succeeded.



Crazy, how fast digital has grown. COVID helped obviously but I don't think we're far off physical sales being less then relevant. I just wish we got better digital data to be honest.
 

reksveks

Member
UK Retail Sales Split :

  • Assassin's Creed Valhalla: 60% on PlayStation
  • Metro Exodus Complete Edition: 77% on PlayStation
  • Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: 56% on PlayStation
  • FIFA 21: 62% on PlayStation
  • Cyberpunk 2077: 60% on PlayStation
  • Hitman III: 75% on PlayStation
  • F1 2021: 66% on PlayStation
  • Outriders: 83% on PlayStation
  • Biomutant: 71% on PlayStation
  • Scarlet Nexus: 79% on PlayStation
  • Life is Strange True Colors: 82% on PlayStation
  • Nier Replicant: 89% on PlayStation
  • NBA 2K22: 73% on PlayStation
  • Mass Effect Legendary: 68% on PlayStation
  • Resident Evil VIII: 80% on PlayStation
  • Hades: 93% on PlayStation
  • Lost Judgment: 90% on PlayStation
  • Tales of A Rise: 86% on PlayStation
  • NFL: 81% on PlayStation
  • FIA 22: 64% on PlayStation
  • Alan Wake Remastered: 84%on PlayStation
Wish we had this data going back in time before gamepass and also aligned with estimate for hardware splits in the uk.

as mentioned in the now closed thread, lets just see what the quarterly revenue looks.
 
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ZywyPL

Banned
Try not to get banned guys.

Przechwytywanie.jpg
 
I remember not being particularly impressed with Alan Wake when it was originally released, it was OK but nothing special really. Not long ago I completed Control for the first time and absolutely loved the game and it really has been the first Remedy game that clicked for me and now I've finished it I'm really feeling that I want to go back and play more of their stuff so I will probably buy the remaster at some point.
Really good to see that Metroid is doing so well and in reviews too. I haven't watched any videos on it yet so that when I do buy it I can go into without really knowing what to expect.
For the first time in absolutely ages I charged up my Switch and we were playing around with some fantastic games from the launch year. Don't really know why but it seems to have been back in the box for most of the generation in my house so we have a LOT of really good games to catch up on now. :messenger_beaming:
 

MrA

Banned
I wonder what % of total uk games sold are fifa, cod, and gta 5
How the fuck is GTA 5 still in top 10? WTF!
Gta online is amazingly popular, plus it is still expensive digitally and used physical copies have some demand (despite their being roughly 8 copies for every man women and child on earth) so buying a new disk on sale is probably the cheapest option
Plus many people really like gta as a whole, the remake remaster rewhatever is going to he huge when it releases (both the ps5,xsx gta 5 and the gta 3 trilogy)

47% of sales on PS5 is crazy, basically double PS4 sales. Seems to be a trend on a lot of new games.
Tails are currently stronger on past gen consoles, launches favor current gen as launch buyers are more enthusiasts than later buyers, will change over the next 2 years or so but right now the last gen consoles still sell plenty of software (shift to current gen showing stronger tails might be a bit faster in the uk as sony is pushing ps5 units hard there, like really hard to the detriment of other eu countries.
probably because ms has been competitive in the uk, sony doesnt want ms to secure the fifa crowd, they just spend too much on micro transactions)
 

ZywyPL

Banned
85% of Alan Wake sales for Playstation is indeed much more than i expected. Specially considering it's an IP that was related to Xbox.
I was expecting in line with most multiplatform games: 70% / 30%

I'm not really that surprised, it's one of those lazy ports with resolution and framerate bump, where if you already played the game on XB, or better yet - on PC, there's barely a reason to get the remaster.
 
Like this is new? People have been going digital for years. You can see that on the UK high street there's barely any of it left other than takeaway or coffee shops. The way its going cash will be a thing of the past too
 

Elios83

Member
Physical sales alone are not representative anymore of total sales, as you can see FIFA 2022 is down yoy compared to FIFA2021 but with digital included total sales are actually growing.
But physical sales are still indicative of relative trends, physical and digital sales are correlated, FIFA and Far Cry would obviously still be the best selling games even with digital included.

It's interesting to note that the Xbox physical market has pretty much died. This is in sharp comparison with a PS5 that is outselling even PS4 versions of cross gen games meaning the PS5 userbase while smaller is really active.
And with Sony reporting that 70% of their sales are now digital there's nothing to indicate that digital sales on PS5 are not really strong as well.
So summed up: PS5 is selling a lot of software in the UK.
 
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It's interesting to note that the Xbox physical market has pretty much died. This is in sharp comparison with a PS5 that is outselling even PS4 versions of cross gen games meaning the PS5 userbase while smaller is really active.
The big 3rd party games like FIFA and Far Cry are apparently still selling about as much as you'd expect them to sell on the Xbox, considering its market share.
 

Roufianos

Member
Yea, these charts are basically worse than nothing at this point as they're highly misleading.

70% is a huge drop for Far Cry though, I doubt digitial plugged that gap.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
So happy for Alan Wake getting a new audience. Bodes well for the sequel!


Playstation dominating UK. Its gonna be really tough for Xbox to recover any market share as they dont seem to be sending any Series X to the uk to even attempt it.
PS5 is flying off the shelves here, and as M MrA has mentioned Sony are going after the FIFA crowd.

The crazy thing is that despite dominating with big shipments, I still can't find anywhere with PS5 in stock. This is going to go well into next year.
People who buy digital: You just played yourself.
PC has basically been all-digital for some time now, and the next generation of consoles will be digital-only too.
 

Elios83

Member
The big 3rd party games like FIFA and Far Cry are apparently still selling about as much as you'd expect them to sell on the Xbox, considering its market share.

Not really.
Far Cry 6 is 71:29.
If we look at other big games that have traditionally been more associated with PlayStation (see Resident Evil) the ratio is heading towards 80:20 or even higher in PS's favour.
This used to be Microsoft's second biggest market and things were really close software wise for big multiplatform releases with 55:45 or 60:40 being common.
The fact Xbox has seen a dramatic shrinkage of its physical market is pretty much an undeniable fact.
It has to be determined how much is compensated by digital sales (if at all) and obviously the Gamepass effect.
It's useless to hide that at this point there are many subscribers who are simply happy enough with the games that are available on the subscription and are not willing to pay full price for day one releases even if they're not available on the service.
 
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Hezekiah

Banned
Not really.
Far Cry 6 is 71:29.
If we look at other big games that have traditionally been more associated with PlayStation (see Resident Evil) the ratio is heading towards 80:20 or even higher in PS's favour.
This used to be Microsoft's second biggest market and things were really close software wise for big multiplatform releases with 55:45 or 60:40 being common.
The fact Xbox has seen a dramatic shrinkage of its physical market is pretty much an undeniable fact.
It has to be determined how much is compensated by digital sales (if at all) and obviously the Gamepass effect.
It's useless to hide that at this point there are many subscribers who are simply happy enough with the games that are available on the subscription and are not willing to pay full price for day one releases even if they're not available on the service.
Of course you have games like Stalker 2 and Warhammer 40k coming to GamePass for example. Good for subscribers, less good for sales of other FPS'.
 

Elios83

Member
Isn't this pretty much what you'd expect? Playstation outsold Xbox roughly 2:1. And XSX stock is so bad that one could assume that a lot of Series consoles in the UK are the discless XSS. 29% seems fine.

71:29 is not PS5 vs XB Series.
Is Playstation vs Xbox.
In 2018 Far Cry 4 sold "only" 60% on PS4 and it was not cross gen:

Xbox as a platform has been losing 10-20% of its physical business market share in the UK and it's a lot.
 

JLB

Banned
Title names in the list form an almost perfect Christmas tree. Poetic.
 
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yazenov

Member
PS showing strong 3rd party software sales and usual. Also very disappointing boxed software sales for the Xbox as usual.

On the digital front, PS still has the lions share of the digital sales . I guess its expected now as the pattern continuous.
 
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MOTM

Banned
71:29 is not PS5 vs XB Series.
Is Playstation vs Xbox.
In 2018 Far Cry 4 sold "only" 60% on PS4 and it was not cross gen:

Xbox as a platform has been losing 10-20% of its physical business market share in the UK and it's a lot.
Why does it matter that they're losing physical market share if there digital share is going up?
 

MOTM

Banned
PS showing strong 3rd party software sales and usual. Also very disappointing boxed software sales for the Xbox as usual.

On the digital front, PS still has the lions share of the digital sales . I guess its expected now as the pattern continuous.
Where do you get the digital sales numbers from?
 

Elios83

Member
Yeah, you'd expect something closer to 80:20 if it was merely PS5 vs Series. Just out of curiosity, what kind of ratio do you expect, given how many consoles Playstation and Xbox sold in the past couple years?

Before Microsoft pushing Gamepass heavily and the launch of the Xbox Series consoles the ratio in physical software sales in the UK was typically 60:40.
Genres like sports and fps even closer 45:55 while things more associated with PlayStation 65:35. You had to go with Japanese titles like Kingdom Hearts and FF to see 70:30.
Now it's 70:30 up to 90:10 common place.
They're obviously losing marketshare in the physical business.
 

yazenov

Member

Elios83

Member
Why does it matter that they're losing physical market share if there digital share is going up?

There is nothing at this point to prove or suggest that their digital sales have been growing higher than on Playstation where Sony is reporting a really high 70:30 digital/physical ratio.
So losing physical market share is losing total software marketshare which would not be good.
 

MOTM

Banned
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MOTM

Banned
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yazenov

Member
It says PS4 is leading digital sales. No mention of Series X nor PS5. It also doesn't mention the ratio of gamers who buy physical VS digital on each console.


Exactly. It doesn't mention Xbox and therefore, it directly contradicts some of people's claims that Xbox digital will make of for the lopsided ratio of boxed sales. On the digital side, PlayStation leads the share with PS4.

There is no evidence to suggest the ratio would be different if digital sales are included. PS consumers simply buy more games than Xbox consumers (maybe due to Gamepass)
 
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reksveks

Member
So losing physical market share is losing total software marketshare which would not be good.
Again we don't exactly know thats the case but i feel like I have had this conversation before in the last thread.

Global Revenue in USD*

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% of Gaming Revenue (PS+Xbox)

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Version of the first graph but limited to the last 25 months
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Trying to figure out their gaming revenue ratios and just trying to create a db to make global comparisons easier. I need to add more rows for Q's and want to add other metrics where applicable.
- Need to introduce a more dynamic and accurate JPY to USD conversion rate.
- Want to add total console gaming estimates.
 

MOTM

Banned
Excatly. It doesnt mention Xbox and therefore, it directly contradics some of people's claims that Xbox digital will make of for the lopsided ration of boxed sales. On the digital side, PlayStation leads the share with PS4.

That 34% doesn't mean anything since you don't have a ratio of physical VS digital + PS4 has double the install base.

Xbox could be 99% digital for all you know and it still wouldn't reflect in those charts.
 

molly14

Member
Why the fuck do people rush out and buy fifa every year,only have to wait a few months and the price falls through the floor, you can buy fifa 21 for about a tenner and fifa 20 for a fiver and its hardly any different anyway, no wonder EA make no effort with the franchise, no point.

People buy it anyway.
 

Elios83

Member

It was already higher than Sony & Nintendo in 2019.
If Microsoft was transparent instead of trying to mix things as they wish and hide stuff in their financials (now even the GP subscribers) we would have a clearer picture.
So far what we know is that Sony is reporting overall really high digital sales 70:30 and that in UK Playstation 4 is leading in digital sales as well. There is no reason to think that PS5 users are different and buy less digital software compared to PS4 users obviously, it's the same fanbase :messenger_grinning_sweat:
So the idea that Xbox is making up the lost ground with incredible digital sales at least in UK is not really likely.
Imo they are simply losing overall ground in overall software sales because millions of their users are changing their habits and are happy enough playing the games that are available on GP alone.
 
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Exactly. It doesn't mention Xbox and therefore, it directly contradicts some of people's claims that Xbox digital will make of for the lopsided ratio of boxed sales.
Nobody in their right mind claimed that it would entirely make up for the physical ratio. Expecting 50:50 sales when one console vastly outsold the other is not realistic.

There were threads where people were celebrating 80:20 physical ratios and implying that digital ratios are gonna be similar. That's where some people (me included) said that Xbox users might be buying more digital than physical relative to Playstation users.
 

MOTM

Banned
If Microsoft was transparent instead of trying to mix things as they wish and hide stuff in their financials (now even the GP subscribers) we would have a clearer picture.
So far what we know is that Sony is reporting overall really high digital sales 70:30 and that in UK Playstation 4 is leading in digital sales as well. There is no reason to think that PS5 users are different and buy less digital software compared to PS5 users obviously, it's the same fanbase :messenger_grinning_sweat:
So the idea that Xbox is making up the lost ground with incredible digital sales at least in UK is not really likely.
Imo they are simply losing overall ground in overall software sales because millions of their users are changing their habits and are happy enough playing the games that are available on GP alone.
One thing we know for sure is that Xbox has a higher digital sales ratio than Playstation.

Hence boxed charts mean absolutely nothing. You have 50% of the picture (one console has a bigger install base and buys more physical) and the other 50% is your imagination.
 
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