Games hardest hit as entertainment retailers struggle

It has been a bleak year for music and films so far, but it’s video games that have suffered the most.

Gfk and Official Chart Company data, compiled by the Entertainment Retailers Association, show the value of the UK games software market is down 12.2 per cent year-to-date over the same period in 2010.That’s compared to an 11.8 per cent drop for video (both Blu-ray and DVD) and a 3.4 per cent drop for music.

In total, UK games retailers have sold 568.9m worth of software. 195.4m of that has been generated by Xbox 360 games (down 3.2 per cent over last year), 147.6m was made up of PS3 software (down 10.7 per cent), while Wii software has generated 94.4m (down 29.5 per cent).

DS game sales, which includes 3DS software sales, has dropped four per cent over last year to 86.1m. PC software retail sales has hit 37.4m year-to-date (a 9.8 per cent drop), while PSP game sales have slipped 44.9 per cent to 7.4m.

In comparison, sales of music this year has reached 511.9m, a slight drop of 3.4 per cent over 2010. However, unlike video and games, this number does include sales of digital music. The music sector was also buoyed by strong sales of Adele’s 21 album, which has shifted 3.1m units in the UK so far.

UK sales of DVD and Blu-ray has reached 791.5m. It’s almost a 12 per cent drop over 2010, but video is still ahead of its entertainment rivals.

In terms of entertainment market share (by value), Video games have 30 per cent, music makes up 27 per cent while video holds a 42 per cent share.