Last year more than three million gaming consoles were sold in the UK, including more than 450,000 PS5 machines, 310,000 Xbox Series consoles and 1.5 million Nintendo Switch devices.
The latest data from graphics vendors GfK and GSD and published by the Entertainment Retailers Association reveals more in-depth information on the performance of the UK gaming market during 2020.
The data show that the three platform owners had a much better year in 2020 compared to the previous year. The Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles combined produced about 600,000 sales, up from the Xbox One’s 500,000 the year before. PS5 and PS4 together achieved about 900,000 sales, which exceeds the 700,000 PS4 in 2019. Finally, Nintendo Switch dominated with 1.5 million units sold in 2020, compared to nearly a million the previous year.
Of course, PS5 and Xbox Series S / X would have sold a lot more if it weren’t for stock issues (Switch also suffered some moments of stock shortages). PS5 and Xbox delivered strong stocks in November, but things were a little quieter in December compared to PS4 and Xbox One releases in 2013.
In total, PS5 grossed £ 191 million, while Xbox Series S / X grossed £ 118 million. Switch generated £ 367.4 million.
One of the most fascinating figures coming out of the yearbook is a look at how the best-selling games digitally and physically worked. FIFA 21, the best-selling game of the year, had 52% digital, while Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War had 69% digital. However, offline games for one player are still predominantly physical. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla had 40% digital data, The Last of Us Part 2 just under 37%, and Spider-Man Miles Morales had 32% digital data (see the chart below for full divisions).
When it comes to physical game sales, it’s no surprise to see that nearly 71% of all games sold were delivered at home, which is to be expected given the pandemic. High Street stores accounted for nearly 16% of physical sales, while supermarkets were only shy of 14%.
The average price of physical games increased by 0.8% in 2020 to £ 34.42.
Click here for the most prominent figures on gaming market performance.
The following is a complete breakdown of physical and digital performance. This 2020 chart is courtesy of the data firm GSD and published by ERA.
| No. | Title | Total sales | Physical sales | Digital sales | Digital division |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FIFA 21 | 2,237,175 | 1,076,743 | 1,160,432 | 51.9% |
| 2 | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 1,528,985 | 472,590 | 1,056,395 | 69.1% |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto 5 | 1,248,608 | 314,129 | 934,479 | 74.8% |
| 4 | FIFA 20 | 904,029 | 341,917 | 562,112 | 62.2% |
| 5 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 899,921 | 330,650 | 569,271 | 63.3% |
| 6 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons | 810,535 | 810,535 | No information | N / A |
| 7 | Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | 693,367 | 415,533 | 277,834 | 40.1% |
| 8 | The Last of Us: 2a part | 543,218 | 344,291 | 198,927 | 36.6% |
| 9 | NBA 2K20 | 481,535 | 59,508 | 422,027 | 87.6% |
| 10 | Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege | 455,705 | 36.002 | 419,703 | 92.1% |
| 11 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 436,841 | 137,930 | 298,911 | 68.4% |
| 12 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe | 427,667 | 427,667 | No information | N / A |
| 13 | Spider-Man: Miles Morales | 400,636 | 273,629 | 127,007 | 31.7% |
| 14 | Monopoly Plus | 398.002 | N / A | 398.002 | 100% |
| 15 | The Marvel Avengers | 380,596 | 252,085 | 128,511 | 33.8% |
| 16 | Ghost of Tsushima | 373,472 | 192,523 | 180,949 | 48.5% |
| 17 | Ciberpunk 2077 | 371,215 | 371,215 | No information | N / A |
| 18 | Minecraft | 334,688 | 221,361 | 113,327 | 33.9% |
| 19 | Assassin’s Creed Odyssey | 327,603 | 54,922 | 272,681 | 83.2% |
| 20 | Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order | 312,915 | 180,551 | 132,364 | 42.3% |
The data in this chart is courtesy of GSD, which tracks sales of physical games (all games) and sales of digital games from selected publishers.
Digital data includes games from participating companies sold through Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Nintendo Eshop. Participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Anuman, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media, Microsoft, Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, THQ Nordic, Ubisoft and Warner Bros.