Over 300,000 games consoles sold in the UK last week - GfK
Black Friday was the 13th biggest day ever for UK games retail
Well over 300,000 games consoles were sold in the UK last week, GfK Entertainment can reveal.
It was a big week for all major consoles, although PS4 was the standout success, with the console enjoying its strongest week except for Black Friday 2013 - which is when the machine came out.
Black Friday week 2017 was the 15th biggest week ever for hardware sales, says GfK business group director Dorian Bloch.
"The Top 4 by this metric are all from December 2008 - 6 out of 10 are from 2008 - and that was of course the time of Wii, but also the time where DS Lite was the runaway must-have item across all entertainment sectors," he tells GamesIndustry.biz. "DS Lite is still the only format to ever sell more than 3m units in one year in UK... yes it was 2008."
There was some interesting statistics to come from GfK's figures, which are based on its panel of retailers. Friday, November 24th, 2017 was the 13th biggest day by revenue since records began for UK games retailers (combined software, console hardware, gaming accessories and digital content). Last year's Black Friday was the 20th biggest day, whereas the biggest day ever was Black Friday 2013, which generated over £100m (as mentioned, it was also the launch of PS4). Black Friday 2014 sits as the No.6 biggest day, while Back Friday 2015 is at No.10.
In terms of console hardware alone, last week's Black Friday was the seventh best-day ever for shifting consoles, pretty much in-line with last year
"If we remove all handheld consoles and focus on home consoles, then actually Black Friday 2017 is the second best week by units, just behind Black Friday 2013 when the PS4 launched," Bloch adds. " Just goes to show how well PS4 and Xbox One are selling at this point in their lifecycles."
Black Friday is also increasingly spreading itself out beyond just the single day. If you look at the entire week (Sunday to Saturday), 37% of hardware was sold on the Friday itself, compared with 45% during the Black Friday week 2014.
Last week's Black Friday was dominated by significant discounts to Xbox One S, PS4 and PS4 Pro. Notable deals included a PS4 Pro with Call of Duty: WWII and GT Sport for £299, Xbox One S with Assassin's Creed Origins or Forza Horizon 3 for £169.99, and the PS4 Slim with GT Sport, or Call of Duty or FIFA 18 for £199.
Nintendo Switch also made it into the Black Friday deals, although retailers primarily opted to bundle games with the machine as opposed to lowering the price. Super Mario Odyssey and Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle were amongst the key bundled titles.