Software Sales Monitor: Market dips to £48.6m

The UK games retail market generated 48.6m in the post-Christmas week – a drop of 45 per cent over the week before.

More than 2m video games were sold at retail for the week ending December 31st, representing a 39 per cent week-on-week dip in unit sales.

FIFA 12 became the best-selling game over the Christmas period thanks to discounting at retail. In fact, many games saw their prices slashed both in the run up to Christmas Day and in the Boxing Day sales.

It was a quiet week for new releases, with Nintendo’s Boom Street hitting shelves. Only one game in the Top 30 saw sales rise – Bethesda’s Rage had a one per cent increase with the FPS sitting in the charts at No.12. Meanwhile, Star Wars: The Old Republic fell to No.38.

Although there are no major new releases out today (Friday, January 6th), there are a few bigger titles out later this month. The Sims 3 Master Suite Stuff is out on January 24th on PC and Resident Evil: Revelations hits 3DS on January 27th.