Games outselling DVD and Blu-ray

By Ellie Gibson Published 26 January, 2009

Rise attributed to popularity of Wii, again.

Videogames are officially outselling DVD and Blu-ray in the shops, according to fact crunchers Media Control GfK International.

Sales of games were up by 20 per cent in 2008 to reach USD 32 billion. According to GfK this is all thanks to the success of the Wii. Meanwhile, combined DVD and Blu-ray sales were down by 6 per cent, amounting to a paltry USD 29 billion.

Gazing into its crystal ball, GfK predicted game sales will rise to account for 57 per cent of packaged media sales this year. The figure for 2008 stood at 53 per cent.

You can find yet more numbers and fortune telling over at GamesIndustry.biz, if that sort of thing makes you happy.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 3 years ago

    >Meanwhile, combined DVD and Blu-ray sales were down by 6 per cent,

    Digital downloads and renting DVDs are getting big in the USA. A lot of my friends are now NetFlix only movie watchers.

  • alimokrane #2 3 years ago

    Im sorry what ? last time I checked games are selling well on 360/Ps3 not the Wii. the Wii is barely shifiting software and the only reason the Wii Attach ratio is high is the hardware being bundled with the games. Wii Play, Mario kart not to mention Wii sports which comes with every console.
    Edited by alimokrane at 26/01/09 @ 09:48

  • LazyDan #3 3 years ago

    ^armchair analyst overrules conclusions from financial and economic professionals. !!!OFFICIAL!!!

    "No one is buying Wii games because I don't want them to be! FACT!"

  • Les #4 3 years ago

    "last time I checked games are selling well on 360/Ps3 not the Wii."

    Wii's installed base is growing much faster than that of 360 and PS3. So while its attach rate is lower, this is easily offset by the size of its ownership.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #5 3 years ago

    According to MCV, sales by unit (i.e. number of individual games) in the UK over Christmas were ranked

    1. Wii
    2. Xbox 360
    3. PS3

    but sales by value were ranked

    1. Xbox 360
    2. Wii
    3. Playstation 3

    I can't find the fugures on their website, though, irritatingly.

    Edit:
    This is of software, not consoles. On that subject, I've read that numbers such as in this report often include sales of hardware, whereas the DVD numbers don't include sales of DVD players, so games are quite possibly a distance behind yet.
    Edited by MENTAL1ST at 26/01/09 @ 10:03

  • electrolite #6 3 years ago

    @alimokrane

    When did you last check, September 2007? Seriously though, what Les said.

  • sneetch #7 3 years ago

    @alimokrane
    the Wii is barely shifiting software and the only reason the Wii Attach ratio is high is the hardware being bundled with the games.

    Does not compute!

    This excerpt appears broken: the Wii is barely shifting software yet also has a high attachment ratio. I'd have thought that was impossible. What don't I understand here?

    Illogica*Bzzt*

    Dammit, now I've blown a processing unit.

  • paulf #8 3 years ago

    this all depends on your definition of outselling

    average price of console game = £40
    average price of dvd = £10

    they may be making more money selling games, but in terms of units sold dvds/bluray still come out on top

  • alimokrane #9 3 years ago

    @LazyDan

    Haha, trying to be funny ? I have nothing against the Wii but as far as official numbers from NPD/MediaCreate... go The only games I see on the top are Wii Sports, Wii play, Wii Fit and Mario kart - All SOLD with hardware.

    @Les

    By your logic the attach ratio references that we see everywhere are pointless then ? It tells me how many games each system is selling. As far as I know that's what's important to the person selling the games.

    @sneetch
    Perhaps that wasnt the best way i wanted to put it. It is high but compared to 360/PS3 it is lower. The reason being that games are included with all hardware being sold (Wii Sports/Wii Play and Mario Kart) and these are then included in the attach ratio of the wii. the Wii's attache ration would drop by 2 games per system if those games were taken out of the equation.

    I have nothing againt the Wii and I barely post here in eurogamer. I am just expressing what I think is being overlooked. :)
    Edited by alimokrane at 26/01/09 @ 11:06

  • GingerNathan #10 3 years ago

    "It is high but compared to 360/PS3 it is lower."
    No, it's lower the the 360's but higher then the PS3's.

    "The reason being that games are included with all hardware being sold (Wii Sports/Wii Play and Mario Kart) and these are then included in the attach ratio of the wii. "
    Wii Sports won't be included is it's only packaged games (unless you're looking at Japanese sales where the game is sold separately). And so what if Mario Kart and Wii Play are included, (it's exactly the same as titles like Sing Star, Eye Toy, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, ) a round piece of plastic and the genius idea of sticking a controller in the Wii Play package doesn't invalidate any sales they've received. Christ, just be happy that in these times of financial uncertainty our beloved hobby is still doing well.

  • Les #11 3 years ago

    "By your logic the attach ratio references that we see everywhere are pointless then ? It tells me how many games each system is selling. As far as I know that's what's important to the person selling the games."

    It's not pointless. Did I say it was? It's one of the factors when deciding on which platform to release a game. But it's just one factor amongst many (e.g. total installed base, diversity of the ownership, development cost, etc.).

  • Penguins20 #12 3 years ago

    Does this take into account preowned sales?

    The preowned market is huge, so I would hope so. Preowned games hold value much better than DVDs do, and this would also help games get the edge over movie sales. Plus, second hand games can retail at around the same price as a new DVD, and given the hours of enjoyment you get out of a game, which would you choose? God bless Gamestation.

  • makeamazing #13 3 years ago

    Actually many places are selling DVD's for less than £10, and in many cases you can get pretty good films for £5. So this is why games are outselling DVD's.

    Also digital downloads of movies... no thanks!

  • bad09 #14 3 years ago

    Doesn't surprise me, I'm a huge movie fan and even I only buy one or two blu a month these days (a lot of the time old movies I want in HD rather than new movies to). I've also cancelled my Sky movies and don't go cinema, there is just hardly anything worth watching most of the year now so why waste money.

    2009 is looking grim to, apart from Star Trek I can't think of anything out this year I really want to see (maybe Terminator, but without Arnie it's not the same!).

  • penhalion #15 3 years ago

    No real suprise if you think about it. How many of us buy instead of renting DVDs?

    My guess is not many. Games take days to play through, while a movie is a 2 hour watch. It makes little or no sense to buy one, watch it for 2 hours then put it on a shelf. Why not spend 4 quid and rent it instead of 10 quid to own it and yet onyl watch it once.

    Blu-ray is 19 quid a pop in most stores so that makes even less economic sense to buy one.

  • skillian #16 3 years ago

    apart from Star Trek I can't think of anything out this year I really want to see

    Watchmen?
    Edited by skillian at 26/01/09 @ 13:38

  • bad09 #17 3 years ago

    @skillian

    I don't mind certain superhero movies (the ones about characters I like basically) but Watchmen doesn't really interest me at all, something I'm saying a lot about movies across the board these days sadly.

  • penhalion #18 3 years ago

    @skillian

    Saw a preview of watchmen and it's a bit crap mate!

  • Thunderbolt #19 3 years ago

    penhalion,

    'Saw a preview of watchmen and it's a bit crap mate!'

    Crap how, what was wrong with it?

  • Foxclose #20 3 years ago

    Overall, still the movie business is bigger than the video game business.

    Games/Movies will merge one day. ;)
    Edited by Foxclose at 26/01/09 @ 14:08

  • [TR] #21 3 years ago

    Is it me, or should that be "Games OUTPROFITING DVD and Blu-Ray"?
    Outselling, to me, would point to selling more units, not making more money.
    The way you put it you could say a Ferrari dealer is outselling a, let's say, Smart dealer when in reality just 1 or 2 Ferraris sold in a month could be making more money than 10 Smart sales for the same month, but clearly not selling more.
    And most of the games that are sold are probably 2-3x as expensive as a DVD or BD.

  • IronCladChicken #22 3 years ago

    Not me skillian - I prefer to watch women. It's my favourite stalking hobby for '09

  • IronCladChicken #23 3 years ago

    @KingsXKing
    "these financial and economic professionals would you care to name some"

    Presumably the guys a Gfk - Who are mentioned in the article?

  • Discalceaterabbit #24 3 years ago

    I blame piracy.
    No wait.....

  • Sunyavadin #25 3 years ago

    Games give longer lasting satisfaction. It's an obvious shift in the market.

  • secombe #26 3 years ago

    Im sorry what ? last time I checked games are selling well on 360/Ps3 not the Wii.

    I'm sure it was mentioned in an article here recently that 3rd party software sales are higher for the Wii than any other console, and it doesn't take a genius to appreciate how many first party titles are being sold, the top 10 is always full of them. If nothing else, the sheer volume of Wii's out there is helping to push more and more software, the attach rate doesn't need to be stupidly high (although I don't think it's nearly as bad as many suggest)

    As has also been mentioned, Wii Sports wouldn't be counted anyway (apart from in Japan), I think the "the Wii is barely shifiting software" comment is about as far as wide from the mark as it can get, to be honest.

  • Beek4257 #27 3 years ago

    As a long time gamer I would just like to make this very un-nuanced statement:
    WE WON! WE'VE FINALLY WON!!

    /laughs like James Bond villain

  • Les #28 3 years ago

    "these stats are seriously misleading. At the moment games cost around 3 to 4 times as much as a DVD what with all the buy 3 for £20 deals there are. Alot more people buy DVD;s"

    and

    "Is it me, or should that be "Games OUTPROFITING DVD and Blu-Ray"?
    Outselling, to me, would point to selling more units, not making more money."

    A lot of people don't understand the difference between revenue, unit sales and profit. Revenue is basically price per unit * units sold. Profit is (price per unit - cost per unit) * units sold. As games are more expensive than DVDs, revenue can be higher while less units are sold. But because games also cost more to create (especially in the HD era) with less units to spread it across, profit realised by the gaming industry is likely lower than that of the movie industry.

  • Les #29 3 years ago

    "@ Les. Do games really cost more to create than movies?"

    They do in general relative to their sales. Though I don't have the figures I don't doubt that The Dark Knight sold more units on DVD and Blu-Ray than GTA IV did last year. And movies have the advantage of the theatrical release and a longer life cycle.