
The burning embers of Guy Fawkes’ festivities were stubbed out early on, but publishers saw plenty of fireworks throughout November – with Activision and Nintendo pinching back significant market share from Electronic Arts Tim Ingham analyses the stats...
ALL FORMATS TOP 20
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360, PS3, PC, DS) Activision
2. The Simpsons (360, PS2, DS, WII, PSP, PS3) EA
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2, 360, PS3, PC) Konami
4. Assassins’s Creed (PS3, 360) Ubisoft
5. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008 (360, PS2, PS3, WII, PSP, DS) THQ
6. FIFA ‘08 (PS2, 360, PS3, PSP, WII, PC, DS) Electronic Arts
7. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (DS) Nintendo
8. More Brain Training (DS, Wii) Nintendo
9. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) Nintendo
10. Ratatouille (DS, PS2, Wii, PSP, PS3, 360, PC) THQ
11. High School Musical: Sing It! (PS2, Wii) Disney
12. The Sims 2: Castaway (DS, PS2, WII, PSP) EA
13. Halo 3 (360) Microsoft
14. Norton 360 All-In-One Security (PC) Norton
15. Need For Speed: Prostreet (360, PS2, PS3, WII, PC, DS) EA
16. Cooking Mama (DS, Wii) 505 Games
17. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii, DS, 360, PS3) LucasArts
18. Football Manager 2008 (PC) Sega
19. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii) Nintendo
20. MySims (Wii, DS) EA
TOTAL SOFTWARE BY LABEL (units)
14% - Nintendo
11.8% - EA Games
8.8% - THQ
8.0% - Activision
6.5% - Ubisoft
4.5% - EA Sports
4.3% - Sony
4.3% - Microsoft
4.0% - Konami
3.6% - Sega
TOTAL SOFTWARE BY LABEL (value)
13.3% - Nintendo
12.9% - EA Games
10.8% - Activision
8.2% - THQ
7.8% - Ubisoft
6.9% - Microsoft
5.4% - EA Sports
4.6% - Konami
3.7% - Sony
What a couple of months it’s been for the Nintendo label. Its market share by units has grown by 3.7 per cent since ChartTrack’s monthly analysis for September, with a full four point jump since last month. The publisher has also seen a 3.7 per cent rise on value in the last month. Despite FIFA’s ongoing success, EA Sports endured a dip of 10.6 per cent on value share in the last month, and a 3.3 per cent drop in terms of units.
TOTAL SOFTWARE BY COMPANY (units)
16.8% - EA
14% - Nintendo
9.3% - THQ
8.9% - Activision
8.9% - Ubisoft
4.7% - Sony
4.4% - Microsoft
4.0% - Konami
3.8% - Sega
3.4% - Disney
TOTAL SOFTWARE BY COMPANY (value)
18.5% - EA
13.3% - Nintendo
11.8% - Activision
9.6% - Ubisoft
8.4% - THQ
6.9% - Microsoft
4.6% - Konami
4.0% - Sony
3.3% - Sega
2.5% - Disney
EA is still very much the dominant force when it comes to software share, but the mega-publisher has seen its lead considerably shortened over the past month. The firm lost 3.8 per cent of market share by units and a significant 5.7 per cent share by value in November. Activision was a major beneficiary, with a unit share hike of 5.9 per cent and a value share rise of 9.1 per cent in the month. Meanwhile, Nintendo saw a rise in unit share of four per cent and a jump in value share of 3.7 per cent.
FULL PRICE FORMAT SHARE (units)
23.1% - Xbox 360
16.2% - DS
15.3% - PS2
14.2% - Wii
13.9% - PS3
12.8% - PC
4.3% - PSP
0.1% - Mac
FULL PRICE FORMAT SHARE (value)
26.2% - Xbox 360
15.5% - PS3
14.7% - Wii
13.7% - PC
12.9% - DS
12.7% - PS2
3.6% - PSP
0.2% - Mac
The 360 format grew its share of full price software units by 1.9 per cent over the last month, and also upped its game when it came to revenue taken – with its share jumping 0.6 per cent on value. The most impressive performance came from Nintendo formats, with the DS growing its share on units by 2.8 per cent and by a cool three per cent on value. Wii grew its share on full price software units by three per cent, and by 3.7 per cent on value. The biggest casualty was the PC, which lost a whopping 6.6 per cent share on units in November.
BUDGET FORMAT SHARE (units)
37.7% - DS
19.7% - PC
19.3% - PS2
8.7% - PSP
8.6% - Wii
4.6% - Xbox 360
1.0% - GBA
0.4% - Xbox
BUDGET FORMAT SHARE (value)
44.5% - DS
19.1% - PS2
10.6% - PC
10.3% - Wii
8.3% - PSP
6.3% - Xbox 360
0.7% - GBA
0.1% - Xbox
Another category in which the PC format had a shocker in November: the platform lost 10.2 per cent share on units sold of budget software in the last month, whilst its total value share in the market dropped by 7.1 per cent. The main beneficiary was the DS, which in turn grew its budget share by 13.5 per cent in units and a mighty 13 per cent by value. Other minor triumphs came from the Wii – which enjoyed a jump in units share of 0.7 per cent – and Xbox 360, which saw its value share rise by 0.2 per cent.
Comments
Leave a Comment
RECENT FEATURES
The moment we’ve been rating for
Bros. in arms
Bridging the gap
House Proud
Asda’s direct approach
Action Hero
Britain’s got talent
Ready to Play
The industry on PEGI ruling
Getting better all the time
Gaming in the dark continent
Football Crazy
The Beautiful Games
Hurdling over the competition
Taking stock
Beyond the Fallout
Top 20 UK Indies - Part Two
Top 20 UK Indies - Part One
SingStar Is Five
His master's vision
The winning ticket
A man for all seasons
‘Come join our Review’
The ‘Station master moves on
Sega's new Euro dream team
‘Let’s demand more respect’
Majesco's March
2009: The story so far
Getting better & better
Farewell, Uncle Frank
ABOUT US
MCV is the leading trade news and community site for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market. It reaches everyone from store manager to CEO, covering the entire industry. MCV is published by Intent Media, which specialises in entertainment, leisure and technology markets















