Swap scrapes into No.1 spot regardless of business gross sales decline

In keeping with stories from the quantity crunchers over at market research teams GfK and GSD, 2022 was a more durable 12 months than normal for UK gaming retailers, with a drop within the gross sales of each consoles and video games when in comparison with 2021.

Over the course of the 12 months, some 34.2 million video games had been bought to UK gamers. Whereas that quantity is to not be sniffed at, it represents a 6% drop on 2021. 20 million of those gross sales had been digital, for a lack of 3.4% over 2021, whereas the remaining 14.2 bodily gross sales characterize a 9% drop year-on-year. Curiously, this discount in gross sales is attributed to the discharge of newly-released titles, which has precipitated an rising pattern of gamers not buying again catalog titles with the identical regularity as they as soon as might need achieved.

These numbers are nothing in comparison with total console gross sales, nevertheless. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, two million {hardware} items had been bought over 2022, which represents a large 29% drop in gross sales year-on-year. There are a number of elements for this, together with a discount in console availability because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the UK’s more and more costly value of dwelling and power disaster.

Total, Nintendo Swap noticed probably the most {hardware} gross sales, although the full variety of items bought was nonetheless 27% down over final 12 months. PlayStation 5 is available in second, regardless of having a large 33% drop in gross sales, and Microsoft’s Xbox Collection X/S consoles are in third place, with a gross sales hunch of 15%. In all, lower than 60,000 items separate the three platforms, so the hole between every is extremely slim.

Listed under are the 20 best-selling video games within the UK for 2022. The positions embody digital and bodily gross sales for all titles besides within the case of Nintendo, the place solely the bodily gross sales are counted.

1. FIFA 23 – Digital Arts
2. Name of Responsibility: Trendy Warfare 2 – Activision Blizzard-
3. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – Warner Bros
4. Elden Ring – Bandai Namco
5. Grand Theft Auto V – Take 2 Interactive
6. God of Warfare Ragnarok – Sony Interactive Leisure
7. FIFA 22 – Digital Arts
8. Horizon: Forbidden West – Sony Interactive Leisure
9. Crimson Useless Redemption 2 – Take 2 Interactive
10. Nintendo Swap Sports activities – Nintendo
11. Pokémon Legends: Arceus – Nintendo
12. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe – Nintendo
13. Gran Turismo 7 – Sony Interactive Leisure
14. Pokémon Violet – Nintendo
15. WWE 2K22 – 2K Video games
16. F1 22 – Digital Arts
17. Pokémon Scarlet – Nintendo
18. Minecraft: Nintendo Swap Version – Nintendo/Mojang
19. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo
20. Sonic Frontiers – Sega

UK video games gross sales dropped 6% in 2022 and console gross sales plunged 29% [GamesIndustry.biz]