UK video game sales have seen a drastic drop in the first half of 2024, compared to last year, with a lack of major releases blamed for the results.
While there’s still been great games this year, it’s clear the video games industry is going through some real problems at the moment, not just in terms of the constant layoffs but also a major downturn in sales.
Console sales worldwide have dropped in recent months, when compared to figures from the same period last year, while Sony has projected a decline in PlayStation 5 sales for the rest of 2024 due to a lack of ‘existing major franchise titles’.
New figures specific to the UK have summarised this downturn over the first half of 2024, with video game sales having fallen almost 30% within that timeframe.
According to figures released by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), video game software sales dropped 29.4% year-on-year to £348.6 million in the first half of 2024.
Physical game sales took an even bigger drop of 40% to £111.7 million, while digital downloads fell 23% to £236.9 million.
‘It was a tough first half for the games business with a lack of heavy-hitting releases, but we are optimistic for a strong second half, the traditional time for blockbuster releases,’ ERA CEO Kim Bayley told GamesIndustry.biz.
Despite the drop, video games still made more revenue than music and video sales. Music revenue, which counts vinyl, CD, and download sales, but excludes streaming, rose by 7.9% year-on-year to £163.8 million.
Video sales, which excludes streaming services like Netflix, went up 5.4% to £213.7 million.
‘This is a striking result for music, driven most notably by Taylor Swift and Record Store Day,’ Bayley added. ‘It was clear back in April the impact they have had on the vinyl sector, but they seem to have lifted the market as a whole too.’
Looking ahead to the second half of the year, the likes of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, EA Sports FC 25, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows might be the titles most likely to boost sales – although, as most of these are annual franchises that means the line-up is still largely the same as last year.
The only positive, in terms of large mainstream hits is that the Nintendo Switch’s line-up is stronger than expected, with the likes of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom, and Super Mario Party Jamboree.
They’re unlikely to be as big as some other recent Nintendo titles though, with little chance that the second half of the year will compensate for the overall poor results in the first half.
Retailers will no doubt be looking to the launch of Nintendo’s new console next year, and the launch of GTA 6, for a significant improvement on 2024.
That’s not going to help any publishers that aren’t Nintendo or Take-Two though, at a time when many of them have already cut staff and are continuing to struggle with the difficulties of releasing current gen games in a timely fashion.
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