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Wii Fit, Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii are the UK's best selling games of 2009 so far, according to GfK Chart-Track figures distributed by ELSPA.
With combined sales of 1.65 million units, the three titles make up 72 per cent of the sales volume of the top five best sellers. They're followed by Professor Layton and the Curious Village at number four, and the Sony first party title Killzone 2 at number five.
The Xbox 360 versions of Resident Evil 5 and Call of Duty: World At War take the number six and number nine places respectively, while EA gets one PC-exclusive title - The Sims 3, which was only released one month ago - into the number eight position.
ELSPA uses the latest data as evidence family-orientated and educational games have become the most popular genres with UK consumers, pointing to the sales figures for Wii Fit and Wii Play, as well as the continued success of Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, to illustrate its point.
Dr Kawashima sits at number seven in the chart and this year's sales now make it the most popular game in the UK ever, having sold over three million units.
"These figures are clear evidence that gaming is now mainstream in the UK," said Michael Rawlinson, director general of ELSPA. "The demographic has changed, so it’s time we did away with the misperception that videogames are merely the preserve of teenage boys shooting zombies. Innovation in the industry means the social and educational benefits of gaming are now enjoyed by players of both sexes and of all ages."
Overall, the performance figures for 2009 so far are the second best the UK has seen to date. Year-on-year sales are down 5.7 per cent however, with 29.7 million units sold compared to 31.5 million units for the same period in 2008. The results should still encourage the UK games industry though, according to Dorian Bloch, business group director of GfK Chart-Track, who commented:
"The videogame entertainment markets show that across software, hardware and accessories, the first half of 2009 is a solid platform for retailers, manufacturers and publishers to build momentum into the last quarter of 2009. The widening demographic and the growing trend in physical-motion gaming, means the industry is well positioned to see further growth."
The overall UK console installed base now stands at 24.2 million units - which is around the same number as there are UK households. The full install figures for each console as of June 27, 2009 can be found here.
This growth in popularity for gaming is further underlined in a report by the Neilsen Research for the Interactive Software Federation of Europe which shows that 33 per cent of the UK population between the ages of 30 and 49 describe themselves as 'active gamers' and 82 per cent say they play videogames with their children.
Update: ELSPA has contacted GamesIndustry.biz after releasing confused information in its original press release. The data first supplied refers to sales of individual format games, showing that the Xbox 360 SKUs of Call of Duty: World at War and Resident Evil 5 are more popular than the PlayStation 3 versions.
To help clarify data, it has also released a list of the top ten games in the UK for all formats. "Please accept ELSPA’s apologies for any misunderstanding or inconvenience caused," said the organisation.
The top ten best-selling games by individual formats for the first half of 2009 follows (revised):
- 01 Wii Fit (Wii)
- 02 Wii Play(Wii)
- 03 Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
- 04 Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
- 05 Killzone 2 (PS3)
- 06 Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)
- 07 Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
- 08 The Sims 3 (PC)
- 09 Call of Duty: World At War (Xbox 360)
- 10 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
The top ten best-selling games by all formats follows:
- 01 Wii Fit (Wii)
- 02 FIFA 09 (Xbox 360/PS3/PSP/Wii/PS2/DS/PC)
- 03 Call Of Duty: World At War (Xbox 360/PS3/WII/PS2/PC/DS)
- 04 Resident Evil 5 (Xbox360/PS3)
- 05 Wii Play (Wii)
- 06 Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
- 07 Professor Layton And The Curious Village (DS)
- 08 Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games (Wii/DS)
- 09 Street Fighter IV (PS3/Xbox 360)
- 10 Guitar Hero: World Tour (Wii/Xbox 360/PS3/PS2)
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alimokrane
06/07/09 @ 10:54
0
360 exclusives not doing so well ? How many were released in the past 6 months anyway ? 2/3 which include Star Ocean and Tales of Vesperia which are JPRGs and which NEVER sell well on any console.
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Triggerhappytel
06/07/09 @ 10:56
+5
So Killzone 2 sold more copies than both versions of Resi 5 combined?! Very impressive, given the lack of KZ2 marketing and the glut of Resi 5 advertising a few months back.
I do agree though that the tagline is a little misleading, since there have been very few impressive 360 exclusives this year. Certainly there have been no good first party ones, have there? |
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Triggerhappytel
06/07/09 @ 11:01
+2
Alright then; has there been any retail release first party Microsoft stuff this year? I don't think there has been, at least nothing big that you would expect to trouble the charts.
:p |
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+12
The only Xbox 360 exclusive I've bought this year has been Halo Wars. I've bought more exclusives for the PS3 (Killzone 2, inFamous, MLB 09: The Show) and PC (Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2, The Sims 3, ArmA II) I think.
To be honest, the Xbox 360 has had a very poor year so far for exclusives. |
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Monkey_Puncher
06/07/09 @ 11:03
0
Other than Halo Wars there's not really been anything of any worth exclusive wise on the 360. Looks like Killzone 2 might even have sold better here than it did in the states, though I could be wrong. I think it's only sold about 700,000 over there.
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designerheadache
06/07/09 @ 11:04
+1
considering Microsoft seem to have dropped the ball on exclusives this year, preferring last year and next year for the major titles, its hardly surprising where they have come.
Good to see KZ2 getting decent sales, since Sony have been smacking us all about our faces with exclusives this year i expect to see more Sony based action in the final top 10 sales for the year as well. Its also hardly surprising the Wii fit is no.1, but i do still wonder how many people actually use the thing for more than a month before never going back. It must be the most over bought and underused game in history. |
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-1
"Very impressive, given the lack of KZ2 marketing and the glut of Resi 5 advertising a few months back. "
Eh? KZ2 had a megaton of advertisement. :/ "I do agree though that the tagline is a little misleading, since there have been very few impressive 360 exclusives this year. Certainly there have been no good first party ones, have there?" Just one or two but they where barely marketed. |
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+1
@Darren, where did you get MLB09 from? Import on the web?
To be fair there has been very little in terms of 360 exclusives this year bar a couple of JRPG and Halo Wars, which mightn't be to everybodys taste and have the same mass appeal as Halo or GoW. I still expect Halo ODST to be the biggest selling game of this year. |
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+4
HiredMan - Ah, okay. I haven't seen hardware figures for the six months to June, only for the 12 months to June. It does seem plausible, given the 360 price cuts and the high installed base of the Wii - although if they are outselling on hardware, Microsoft must be pretty gutted that their software sales are so weak by comparison.
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0
*This* year not the last 12 months. The Wii sold a lot for XMas... but this year it seems the 360 has sold almost twice the amount of consoles as the Wii.
"Microsoft must be pretty gutted that their software sales are so weak by comparison" Based on the charts 360 software has been doing really well. They are probably spread out over a lot more titles than the Wii though.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 12:21
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-3
well considering also nintendo tend to sell us 'tools' not games these days it's kinda misleading in the title also..
But it rings true this and next year seem to have more exclusives comming out for Wii/PS3 then the 360 moreso if your not a Halo fan, I'm liking the XBLA lineup tho although like last year it seems the big hitters have been lumped in the summer lineup again, but then again I am mostly playing the XBLA games over disk right now |
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+1
Yep, the 300k/600k figure for Wii/360 is being bandied around too, I couldnt remember which period it was for though :/
It's February-June. As you said, the ratio is only 1.4:1 or so when you include January, when the Wii outsold 360. Have there even been any 360 exclusives of real note in 2009? Like Darren, the only one I bought was Halo Wars. I think MS should be less "gutted" about sales of exclusives than the very lack of exclusives. Almost everything now is multiplatform, although they still seem to be enjoying superior multiplatform sales in most cases. |
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-6
"360 exlcusives are not selling well. it's irrelevant that there were none released this year. Wii Fit, Play, Mario Kart, Brain Training surely weren't released this year either... "
Yes, everybody knows Halo 3 was a flop. And Gears. Rip 360. Oh, and GTA 4 too, since it's not on *the list*.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 12:53
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dirigiblebill
06/07/09 @ 11:58
+6
A more accurate headline would be "Nintendo games dominating UK in 2009".
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-7
i don't know where this "360 outsold Wii 1.4/1 (or 2/1)" comes from. I think it is utter bollocks.
Look here: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wi... - "blue curve" has been continuously above "green curve" since june 2008... please correct me if I am wrong, including sources... |
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-1
miiiguel: I have re-read my post and I do not have the impression I said that Halo 3 and Gears and so on have been flops, or have I? I was just mentioning that the argument of "no exclusives this year" is not a valid one to explain the lack of 360 exclusives in that list, since the top 3 were not released this year either.
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Monkey_Puncher
06/07/09 @ 12:03
+1
I don't see how Microsoft can be disappointed about sales of games that haven't actually been released. It sounds like Halo Wars sold a good 1 mill around the world, which is pretty amazing sales for a console RTS. It's also been known for a long while that Nintendo have mastered the ability to create games that consistently sell and stay in the charts. Where as 360 exclusive and also PS3 sales do most their sales in the first months of release.
I'm sure Microsoft won't be losing much sleep over the umpteen millions of copies Gears 2 and others sold last Christmas. |
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-5
@ MB: "360 exlcusives are not selling well. ", English is not my 1st language (nor 2nd) but that sentence is pretty easy, even for me. That, for me, means that "360 exclusives are not...err... selling well", which came to mind Halo and Gears, which I have this weird idea that they sold pretty well.
disclaimer: Anyway, I've seen your posts in many 360 realted threads so I don't want to sound too hypocrite, I know the drill.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 13:07
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special_move
06/07/09 @ 12:16
+5
WARNING: People are reading these figures WAY wrong.
The original report from ChartTrack GFK is top 10 individual skus (ie. not combined sales for multi format titles). RE5 has outsold Killzone 2 by far all formats. can we get a correction in the article? UPDATE: MCV have pulled the chart pending a correction....
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 13:33
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0
"Yep, the 300k/600k figure for Wii/360 is being bandied around too,"
I still think that's wrong to be honest. The top 3 games (Wii Fit,Wii Play and Mario Kart) sold 1.65m combined...that being the case we've got to be looking at sales of 400k + for Wii Play. Wii Play sells to around 45% of wii owners....so if Wii Play sells 400k..you've got to be looking at Wii hardware sales of 800k+. Wii Play usually sells under half of what Wii hardware does every month.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 13:28
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Telepathic.Geometry
06/07/09 @ 12:47
+3
I'm not sure it's fair to include Wii Play as a game as a lot of people only want the peripheral it comes with and have only a passing interest in the game itself, although it's reasonably entertaining for a bit. At least that's how it was for me. I doubt I'm alone on that.
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gingerlink
06/07/09 @ 12:52
+2
with continued success of Wii Play, you've got to think, the release of Wii Sports 2 is going to give MONUMENTAL sales...
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+4
I think you have to look at the breadth of the game library to put this chart into more context. I think you see Wii games up there as the attach rate is focused on a small amount of games: The casual gamer who picks up a Wii is picking it up for Wii Fit, Wii Play for the second controller and Mario Kart because it's a hand-in-hand game with any Nintendo console, Brain training is another Casual/family favourite.
The 360 attachment must be spread over a larger amount of games, 7:1 if you believe their press so it will be harder for it's games to hit the top 10. If you expanded this from Top 10 to Top 40/50/100 I reckon you'd see more of the list filled with 360/Ps3.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 14:02
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Telepathic.Geometry
06/07/09 @ 13:08
-1
I'm not saying disregard it in fairness. But I just feel that, to at least some extent, it's like putting sales of 360 controllers in the games sales charts.
(To expand on that a little more, if the peripheral were one that you could pretty much only use for that game light a SFIV controller or a light-gun thingy or something, it's fair game, as it's part of that game). To explain once AGAIN, how well would Wii Play fare if it were sold completely separately?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 14:10
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+1
"with continued success of Wii Play, you've got to think, the release of Wii Sports 2 is going to give MONUMENTAL sales... "
I don't know. If they bundle it as they did with WS1 then it will sell a megaton no matter what. If they don't do a pack in but sell it separately, I reckon that we will see how well it actually sells. |
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Sunyavadin
06/07/09 @ 14:03
-1
Given how long the Sims 3 has been out ocmpared to the others, I think we can safely say PC is dominating the chart.
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-1
"Look here: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wi... - "blue curve" has been continuously above "green curve" since june 2008...
please correct me if I am wrong, including sources..." You are wrong for using vgchartz as "evidence". They publish estimates based on...well, I don't really know. Either way, vgchartz isn't a beacon of truth. |
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-1
@miiiguel: English is not my 1st language (nor 2nd) but that sentence is pretty easy, even for me. That, for me, means that "360 exclusives are not...err... selling well", which came to mind Halo and Gears, which I have this weird idea that they sold pretty well.
if it is so easy to you, how come you seem to mix and match the tenses "are not selling" and "have sold"? Like I said in my 3rd post in this thread (n°34), I am not discussing the "have sold" - we both know they indeed have. I AM agreeing with the "are not selling" since, at this moment, they are not, according to the (original) article. ronuds: vgchartz is not too shabby. I also do not believe they are 100% correct. They don't even claim so. Yes, they use estimates, but they do correct based on official data (NPD, charttrack...). But... is there a better / more accurate source? |
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0
"its the usa that really matters in the "console wars" and its 360 all the way but the uk is an important market now bigger than the much touted(by sony fanboys?) japanese market."
Really? http://www.videogamer.com/news/360_exten... Uk market, current gen including DS has sold 24m to date,Wii+360+PS3=11.5m http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/japan-... Japanese market, DS alone has sold 26m, wii+360+PS3=12.4m. Maybe you should check your market figures before you make broad sweeping statements, or you'll end up looking like a MS fanboy trying to trumpet their minor success.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 06/07/09 @ 16:52
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0
"vgchartz is not too shabby. I also do not believe they are 100% correct. They don't even claim so. Yes, they use estimates, but they do correct based on official data (NPD, charttrack...). But... is there a better / more accurate source?"
vgchartz is hit and miss. Some months they make you think they know what they're doing and other months not so much. I don't know of any better sources, unfortunately. |
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