EA dominates, Activision crashes in publisher rankings

Friday, 12th January 2007 at 5:30 pm

EA was the big winner again in the full year publisher rankings for 2006, but fellow US giant Activision tumbled down the table – while THQ and Ubisoft cemented their position as EA's main challengers.

EA retained its vice-like grip at the top in 2006, and accounted for nearly a fifth of all sales by both value and units. Its share did dip very slightly though, from 20.1 per cent in value terms during 2005 to 19.8 per cent in 2006.

“We're just thrilled by the achievement,” EA UK boss Keith Ramsdale told MCV this week. “The UK publishing team have worked smarter than ever this year which has meant our games have continued to enjoy the chart positions that they deserve and continued their growth in popularity and critical acclaim from those that play them.”

Take 2 performed well considering it didn’t have a full-scale GTA roll-out apart from the PSP-saving Liberty City Stories, but Activision slumped from second in 2005 to just eighth in 2006 by value, following a largely barren year until Q4. THQ and Ubisoft each enjoyed considerable success at retail this year, while of the platform holders, Nintendo performed the best in terms of software, ranking fourth in terms of both value and units.
MCV can reveal the full year Chart Track publisher rankings by value and units for 2006 are as follows:

TOP UK GAMES PUBLISHERS 2006: VALUE

1.     Electronic Arts    19.8%
2.     THQ                        7.9%
3.     Ubisoft                    6.9%
4.     Nintendo                6.8%
5.     Microsoft                6.5%
6.     Sony                       5.7%
7.     Take 2                    5.4%
8.     Activision               5.0%
9.     Sega                       4.1%
10.   Eidos/SCI              3.7%

TOP UK GAMES PUBLISHERS 2006: UNITS

1.     Electronic Arts    18.0%
2.     THQ                    8.3%
3.     Ubisoft                  7.3%
4.     Nintendo            5.6%
5.     Take 2                5.4%
6.     Sony                     5.4%
7.     Activision             4.9%
8.     Sega                     4.3%
9.     Microsoft            3.7%
10.   Vivendi                  3.7%

Note: Microsoft software calculations include non-games PC software.

Source: ELSPA/ChartTrack

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/25301/EA-dominates-Activision-crashes-in-UK-publisher-rankings