GAME sales up 90% over Christmas

Like-for-like sales at the UK’s leading video games retailer GAME grew 90 per cent year-on-year for the six weeks ending January 4th.

Total sales jumped 83 per cent with online sales rocketing by 213 per cent.

This strong overall performance for our second peak trading period was driven by our ability to capitalise on the hugely successful launches of Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4,” chief exec Martyn Gibbs said.

This was supported by the release of well-received new games, significant growth in online and digital sales and the continued success of our pre-owned games offering.”

Gibbs also emphasized that it’s not just the next-gen consoles that served to boost the company’s fortunes – its revised store offer played a huge part too.

These figures also reflect the transformation over an 18-month period of the operational and financial profile of the business,” he added. Investments in store team training and a far-reaching store improvement programme meant we were well prepared for the launch in November of two long-awaited new consoles.

Meanwhile our omni-channel offer was boosted by improvements to our website, our mobile site and the introduction of our award-winning GAME app, while we also recently extended our trade-in offer online. Investment in our digital content platform drove record digital market share through in-store and online sales.

We now have one of the biggest reward card schemes in the UK and we have recruited significant numbers of new customers to the scheme over the period. This is providing us with a rich seam of customer insights with which to plan ahead with our supplier partners.”

All of which has unsurprisingly left Gibbs feeling optimistic.

Looking to the future, we see strong momentum in our industry and our business as the new generation of consoles and related products take hold,” he explained.

Meanwhile we are continuing to invest in our digital delivery and expect to see revenue from digital content increase significantly in 2014 and beyond. Our brand strength and position as a hub for the gaming community leaves us well placed to benefit from both trends.”