UK Game Sales 2020

The Entertainment Retailers Association has released details on videogame sales in the UK for 2020.

The top ten bestsellers were:

1) FIFA 21 - 2,182,694
2) Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - 1,420,353
3) Grand Theft Auto 5 - 1,127,222
4) FIFA 20 - 903,810
5) Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare - 897,350
6) Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 810,462
7) Assassin's Creed Valhalla - 665,815
8) The Last Of Us Part 2 - 539,247
9) NBA 2K20 - 481,507
10) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - 436,957

These figures include physical and download versions; except for Nintendo which does not share download sales figures.

Other key aspects include:

2020 revenues were £4.2bn, up 14.5 per cent on 2019.

The digital games business in the UK was so big last year it was worth more than the entire video market and twice as much as the music market

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I'm surprised that only one Nintendo-published title made the top ten; this seems to go against recent news stories that Nintendo was enjoying major success in the UK. And, of course... just who is buying GTA 5? Seven years of incredible sales and yet still people buy it in huge numbers! Are they re-buying it several times each?

jawa2 wrote:I'm surprised that only one Nintendo-published title made the top ten

jawa2 wrote:These figures include physical and download versions; except for Nintendo which does not share download sales figures.

Surely that goes a long way to removing any surprise?

I buy all my games on the e-Shop these days. The idea of having to fiddle around with carts seems so old fashioned to me now!

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

jawa2 wrote:I'm surprised that only one Nintendo-published title made the top ten

jawa2 wrote:These figures include physical and download versions; except for Nintendo which does not share download sales figures.

Surely that goes a long way to removing any surprise?

I buy all my games on the e-Shop these days. The idea of having to fiddle around with carts seems so old fashioned to me now!

Nintendo has historically enjoyed far greater sales on physical formats than on digital. Perhaps things are changing as some news stories suggest that Animal Crossing on Switch was a big digital sales success.

My surprise was based upon the top ten relative to the news that the Switch sold more consoles in the UK last year than every other format combined. Switch games often make up a bulk of the top-selling games on Amazon, too. I guess Switch players could be driving up sales of micro SD cards and downloading, too.

I would imagine Animal Crossing was massively downloaded given its lockdown release

The biggest surprise for me there is NBA 2K20. Would appear to be far more people interested in the game of the sport than the sport itself, though that wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Sure would be nice if EA brought back NBA Street...

Look at all those sensible people also buying FIFA 20 on budget.

How many copies of GTA V do people need

Edd wrote:How many copies of GTA V do people need

The question for this year is whether the PS5 upgrade will be free, require a 'small fee', or is everyone going to have to buy it again?

Edd wrote:How many copies of GTA V do people need

A 7 year old game is still in the top 3 of the year. Astonishing really!

Tbh I bought GTAV on PS3 on release then a few years later I got it on Xbox One. And then I thought about buying a digital version of it recently cos I'd misplaced the disc.

Probably not that uncommon to end up with multiple copies when the game comes with HD updates on two generations. I don't even play online or anything but it's a nice little sandbox sometimes.

jawa2 wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

jawa2 wrote:I'm surprised that only one Nintendo-published title made the top ten

jawa2 wrote:These figures include physical and download versions; except for Nintendo which does not share download sales figures.

Surely that goes a long way to removing any surprise?

I buy all my games on the e-Shop these days. The idea of having to fiddle around with carts seems so old fashioned to me now!

Nintendo has historically enjoyed far greater sales on physical formats than on digital. Perhaps things are changing as some news stories suggest that Animal Crossing on Switch was a big digital sales success.

My surprise was based upon the top ten relative to the news that the Switch sold more consoles in the UK last year than every other format combined. Switch games often make up a bulk of the top-selling games on Amazon, too. I guess Switch players could be driving up sales of micro SD cards and downloading, too.

Digital sales for Nintendo have been seeing a huge increase since the Switch released, this was from 2019: Nintendo's Digital Sales Are Nearly Double The Amount Of The Previous Fiscal Year



I can imagine that trend has continued over the last year as well.

KK wrote:The biggest surprise for me there is NBA 2K20. Would appear to be far more people interested in the game of the sport than the sport itself

My first thought also

I also might have expected Mario Kart

Good to see Valhalla did well, absolutely loving it so far.

KK wrote:The biggest surprise for me there is NBA 2K20. Would appear to be far more people interested in the game of the sport than the sport itself, though that wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

The stupidly cheap price in April of £2.49 on XB1 & £2.99 on PS (IIRC) is probably one of the main reasons. I bought it on both consoles cos of the price and the quite frankly great gameplay and graphics it provided. I’ve no real interest in watching an NBA game live but the game, the commentary, the gameplay and the overall presentation was fantastic.

Sure, it was full of micro transactions but you could play the game without spending a further penny if you wanted

Jenuall wrote:

jawa2 wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

jawa2 wrote:I'm surprised that only one Nintendo-published title made the top ten

jawa2 wrote:These figures include physical and download versions; except for Nintendo which does not share download sales figures.

Surely that goes a long way to removing any surprise?

I buy all my games on the e-Shop these days. The idea of having to fiddle around with carts seems so old fashioned to me now!

Nintendo has historically enjoyed far greater sales on physical formats than on digital. Perhaps things are changing as some news stories suggest that Animal Crossing on Switch was a big digital sales success.

My surprise was based upon the top ten relative to the news that the Switch sold more consoles in the UK last year than every other format combined. Switch games often make up a bulk of the top-selling games on Amazon, too. I guess Switch players could be driving up sales of micro SD cards and downloading, too.

Digital sales for Nintendo have been seeing a huge increase since the Switch released, this was from 2019: Nintendo's Digital Sales Are Nearly Double The Amount Of The Previous Fiscal Year



I can imagine that trend has continued over the last year as well.

Indeed. Nintendo digital sales have clearly seen a massive increase. Most people I know with a switch just use the eshop now.

The shame is that Nintendo won’t release the download figures so we have no idea how well games are selling on the switch.

Hardware -

Switch: ~1.45M
PS5: ~430K
PS4: ~420K
XBX|S: ~305K
XB1: ~300K

GTA V can't have sold that many more units back in 2013 can it?

Damn, more people bought a switch in the last 12 months than have received the Covid vaccine.

The digital games business in the UK was so big last year.

I didn't realise the UK had actually received that many PS5 and XBX/S consoles.

List is kinda redundant without Switch digital sales, no?