Activision and Nintendo boost UK games retail market in July

The UK boxed games market enjoyed a stronger July this year than in 2016, driven by the continued success of Crash Bandicoot and Nintendo Switch.

Typically the quietest month of the year, July 2016 featured very few new releases with LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which was released in June) proving the most successful product. As a result, just 792,039 games were sold, generating £21.5m (UKIE/GfK figures).

This year, however, things were a little rosier. 921,542 physical games were sold in the UK last month, generating £25.5m, which is a rise of 16.3% and 18.5% respectively.

Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy was the runaway reason for this growth, which remains at No.1 in its second month on sale. The continued success of Activision's remaster has seen the company emerge as the most successful physical games publisher of the month, with a 19.2% share of the market (in terms of number of games sold).

However, in terms of revenue generated, Nintendo was the No.1 games company with a 21.2% share of the boxed software market - primarily due to the higher price of Nintendo Switch software. Splatoon 2 was the highest charting new release of July at No.2.

Nintendo Switch accounted for 9.7% of all the physical games sold last month, with Xbox One on 24.9% and PS4 on 53.9%. In terms of revenue, again because of the higher price of Switch software, Switch had a 16.3% share of the market, with Xbox One on 21.7% and PS4 on 52.6%.

There's a few caveats here, of course. Although more Switch hardware was released into the market to coincide with the launch of Splatoon 2, supply of Nintendo's machine remains constrained. Furthermore, GfK currently does not track sales made via Nintendo's popular UK online store, so we're likely underplaying Nintendo's performance - if only slightly.

There was one other new releases in the Top Ten, Square Enix's remaster of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age at No.5. In fact, seven of the games in the Top 50 are remastered versions of previous titles - including Modern Warfare Remastered, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Wipeout: Omega Collection, LEGO City Undercover and Skyrim.

Here is the UKIE/GfK Top 20 for July: