GamesIndustry: Game sales jumped at least 44% as a result of the spread of coronavirus

The coronavirus has dealt a blow to such segments of the gaming industry as production and business development. However, in terms of sales, everything is different. As our colleagues from GamesIndustry report in their research.biz, sales are growing.

Methodology

GamesIndustry.biz analyzed March data from Games Sales Data (GSD), the sales chart of the European Interactive Software Federation (ISFE).

GSD collects digital retail data from 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and physical sales data from 17 countries (mainly Europe and Southeast Asia plus Australia).

The data was obtained either from retailers (in the case of physical retail) or from publishers (among GSD partners are Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and many others).

The main figure

During the 12th week of the year (from March 16 to 22), 4.3 million games were sold (63% more than the week before). One of the growth factors is the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If you do not take it into account, then sales growth was also a significant 44%.

Digital Retail

Sales of games on digital platforms (we are talking about Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Nintendo Eshop) for the 12th week amounted to 2.74 million. This is 52.9% more than a week earlier. This is without taking into account the sales of the two main March blockbusters — Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom: Eternal (Bethesda and Nintendo do not share digital sales of their games).

In countries where quarantine has been declared, digital sales have grown significantly. For example, in France, where the movement of people has been restricted since March 17, digital sales increased by 180% in the 12th week. Quarantined on March 14, Spain showed a 142% increase in the 11th week (from March 9 to March 15) and a 23% increase in sales a week later.

Italian citizens have been in isolation since March 9. In the first week of quarantine, sales of digital games in the country showed a 174% increase. In the second week, sales decreased by 11%, but still remained at a much higher level than is customary for the country.

In countries where quarantine had not yet been introduced in mid-March, there was also an increase in digital sales. In the UK, they increased by 67%, in Germany — by 60%, and in Australia — by 26%.

Physical retail

In the 17 countries covered by GSD, weekly sales of video games from March 16 to 22 amounted to 1.58 million copies. This is 82% more than a week earlier. However, if you do not take into account the sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom: Eternal, then the growth was only 10%.

But again, the situation strongly depends on the country. In the UK, sales growth was 218%. Excluding the mentioned blockbusters — 83%. A similar situation in Australia: sales growth of 278% with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom: Eternal, and without them — 86%.

In countries where quarantine has already been introduced for the 12th week, the situation is different. For example, in France, sales of physical copies taking into account Animal Crossing grew by 70%, but fell by 1.5% without it. The situation is worse in Spain and Italy, where physical sales sank by 50% and 48%, respectively (not including Animal Crossing).

Console Sales

For March 16-22, 259 thousand gaming devices were sold. This is 155% more than a week earlier.

Important: the introduction of quarantine in a number of countries had less impact on console sales than on the sale of physical copies of games. For example, in Italy, in the first week of quarantine (March 9-15), sales jumped by 84%, and in the second only slightly decreased (by 1.8%). In Spain, in the 11th week, when the isolation was announced, console sales jumped by 27.7%, and in the second week — by 66.1%. In France, in the first week of quarantine, they increased by 140.6%.

In the UK, amid the threat of coronavirus, gaming devices have also begun to be actively bought up. Console sales increased by 126.6% in the 11th week of the year, and by another 250% in the 12th week. The situation is similar in Australia, where console sales for the period from March 16 to 22 rose by 285.6%.

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Obviously, the peak sales of gaming consoles now will lead to a drop in sales in the coming months. However, given the increased audience of consoles, the sales of games themselves (primarily in the digital segment), most likely, on the contrary, will continue to grow.

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