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2005 UK Sales Review

Part Two: Clapping the handhelds.

Kristan Reed avatar
Feature by Kristan Reed Contributor
Updated on
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Game Boy's advanced years

In its fifth year on sale, GBA sales still rule the handheld roost in terms of units sales, with 3.08m games sold during 2005 and 5.6 per cent market share, though its overall market share, by units, dropped by one percentage point on 2004 when sales reached a peak of 3.47m (£7.63m). In terms of the value of those sales, 2005 netted £6.05m, or put another way, five per cent of the market (down from 6.4 per cent in 2004).

In terms of games, Pokemon Emerald outsold all comers, with almost 150k - some way down from where the brand was at its peak, but enough to keep sales of Fire Red and Leaf Green ticking over nicely with over 50k sales of each. Unlike the DS listings, there's barely a decent 'gamers' game' in the entire list, with the charts clogged up with child-friendly licensed fodder, such as Simpsons Road Rage (almost 140k), while The Incredibles, Scooby Doo: Mystery Mayhem and Bratz Rock Angelz all sold over 60k. As ever, THQ is far and away the king of the GBA, with 12 games in the top 20 alone.

Bizarrely, critically appreciated games like Donkey Kong: King of Swing rank way down the sales charts in 114th place (less than 7k), while it's a similar story for Yoshi's Universal Gravitation (130th), with Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones (141st), Donkey Kong Country 3 (176th) and Rare's underrated It's Mr Pants (185th place) selling even less. Even the rather wonderful Mario Power Tennis failed, hitting 205th place and selling just over 2k. Meanwhile, anything with a Pixar, cartoon or film license on it sells bucketloads... Incredibles Power Tennis, anyone?

Ever wondered what the all-time GBA best-sellers in the UK were? Read on.

  1. Mario Kart: Super Circuit
  2. Pokemon Ruby
  3. Finding Nemo
  4. Pokemon Sapphire
  5. Monsters, Inc.
  6. Pokemon Fire Red
  7. The Incredibles
  8. Sonic Advance
  9. Pokemon Leaf Green
  10. The Simpsons: Road Rage

And if you're wondering how the PC and Xbox 360 fared in 2005, join us again tomorrow when we take a look, and round off our coverage of Chart-Track's annual sales report.

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