General Gaming Sales/Charts Discussion

[bob]

"Sony’s PlayStation 4 remains the best-selling console in March and 2018. The Nintendo Switch 32GB with red and blue Joy-Con controllers was the best-selling hardware in March and 2018."

 

What? PS4 is the best selling console, but Switch was the best selling hardware? Is the Switch not considered a console?

 

Edit: looked it up, apparently this means the red and blue switch was the best selling sku across all consoles, but if you add together all the PS4 variants, they sold more than the Switch variants.

[Julius]

God of War reportedly sold 3.1 million in only its first 3 days, making it the fastest selling PS4 exclusive to date. For comparison, Uncharted 4 sold 2.7 million units in its first week, and Horizon Zero Dawn sold 2.6 million units in its first two weeks. 

[Mandalore]

EA's CEO Reveals PS4 is Selling More Than Double Xbox One

I was under the impression Microsoft were gaining momentum in the last year, this suggests otherwise.

[Happenstance]

From what I’d heard the Xbox One X sold very well at launch then had dropped in sales quite a bit which is why a lot of deals have been around for it.

[Julius]

33 minutes ago, Mandalore said:

EA's CEO Reveals PS4 is Selling More Than Double Xbox One

I was under the impression Microsoft were gaining momentum in the last year, this suggests otherwise.

Oh dear. If there’s any accuracy/current truth in those numbers, which I assume there has to be considering who’s supplying them, I don’t think it matters how well Xbox do at E3 next month. 

PlayStation nearly caught up last generation thanks to some excellent games, huge price cuts/smart console redesigns, and some great PR moves (such as keeping online multiplayer a free service). I just don’t see where Xbox can pull that from, unless they’ve been sitting on a treasure trove of must-have AAA games that have been in development since 2014/2015.

And, if they do have such games, what’s their play? Do they stick them out towards the end of this generation in a hope of a last stand? Or do they recoup and save them to strengthen the initial lineup for their next console? 

[killthenet]

I think Xbox's strategy over the past 18 months has been about preparing for the next generation really, trying to diversify their game line up a bit more to veer away from the image that the Xbox is good only for Halo and Gears Of War. I think the projects that have been hinted at (like the return of Fable) will be part of their strategy for the successor to the Xbox One and they are shifting their focus from simply creating an Xbox console to creating an Xbox ecosystem by making their exclusives available on Windows. I think in the short term it seems like they're diluting their console business but the execs in charge of Xbox are looking at the bigger picture and are thinking more long term than just catching up with the PS4. 

The Xbox One X kind of flies in the face of that long term philosophy though, they seem to have invested millions in R&D to produce a console they can market as the most powerful ever released just to squeak a couple of percent of the console market away from Sony. I think i'm most interested in their E3 conference to see what their plans are for the next year, I know what to expect from Sony and Nintendo but I can't think what Microsoft's showing is going to be like.

[Hero-of-Time]

I agree with @killthenet in that they are preparing for the next generation. Things like their backwards compatibility initiative and Game Pass show that they are thinking ahead. The problem is that will this be enough? Even in their most successful generation ( 360) Sony still managed to enough enough catch up to them once they lowered the price of the PS3 and changed their image with the slim model. The way I see it Microsoft have a couple of issues.

The first one is one that has really hurt them this generation and that is first party games. Back in the 360 days the console was well known for having the best 3rd party support and, especially early on in the generation, the best versions of these games. You also had a fair few 1st party exclusives, like Gears of War, Forza, Halo, Viva Pinata, Banjo Kazooie and Crackdown. Fast forward to today and you can see that 3rd parties have favoured the PS4 and Microsoft's own 1st party efforts have been really lacking. Ryse ( I loved that game ), Sunset Overdrive, Halo 5, Gears of War 4, Halo Wars 2, Quantum Break, Halo: Master Chief Collection and ReCore either failed or didn't sell as well as they wanted. The only series that has been very successful for them is Forza. Nintendo have shown they can survive on their own output alone and Sony realised last gen just how important a strong first party lineup up is in getting people on your platform. 

Colin Moriatry spoke about this problem this week.

The second thing that goes against Microsoft is that they only really have success in the US and UK. Despite their best efforts last gen, they couldn't break into the Japanese market, even though they had great exclusive JRPGs like Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey. Yeah, that market is now very handheld orientated but its still a big slice of the pie that they will always miss out on. A lot of Europe is loyal to the PlayStation brand and has been for a long time now and many European countries splash the cash on anything Nintendo puts out. It doesn't help that Microsoft treated some European countries like second class citizens with the One launch, making many countries wait months before releasing the console after releasing it in the US and UK.

It's not all bad though. Their recent financials showed that hardware sales were up YoY,  Game Pass was doing very well for them and revenue was climbing. It seems that even though the hardware isn't selling like hotcakes, the players that are engaged with the system are spending time and money on it. Phil Spencer has certainly steadied the ship and managed to undo most of the damage that Mattrick had done at the launch of the console. Now we just need to see if they are actually going to invest in some strong, single player campaign games and I wouldn't be surprised if most of what they are working on is going to be held back for the launch of their new system so that it will hit the ground running.

As a side note. I do hope that they don't drop out of the console race. They have franchises that I really love, such as Halo ( I actually just started reading the books again. I forgot how fantastic fall of Reach was. ) Gears of War and anything that Rare develops. Sony need Microsoft to keep pushing them and the same goes for Microsoft needing Sony. I don't include Nintendo in this because they don't seem to bother to react to anything the other 2 do, which I always see as a bad thing.

Again, I agree with @killthenet in that Microsoft's E3 is the one i'm most interested in. I pretty much know what kind of E3 I will get from the other 2 but Microsoft have it all to play for and I want to see if they are going to pull something out of the bag in order to get people on board with their platform. Let's just hope that their conference doesn't leak again. I think this has happened 2 years in a row now.  

[drahkon]

UK Sales Charts: Week Ending 26th May, 2018

1. Detroit: Become Human
2. State of Decay 2
3. Dark Souls Remastered
4. FIFA 18
5. God of War
6. Far Cry 5
7. Overwatch
8. Destiny 2
9. Fallout 4
10. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Quote

God of War's five-week reign at the summit of the UK boxed charts is at an end.

The PS4 exclusive makes way for another PS4 exclusive in the form of Detroit: Become Human. It's the tenth different PS4 exclusive to top the charts this year.

Developed by Quantic Dream, sales of the game is roughly in-line with the performance of its last title, 2013's Beyond Two Souls. When you factor in the expected increase in digital download sales (which isn't included here) it's likely the game surpassed the performance of that title - although not by a huge margin.

However, it's well behind sales of 2010's Heavy Rain, which sold almost four times as many copies (in a box) than Detroit: Become Human.

There's another new game at No.2, as well, in the form of State of Decay 2. The Xbox One exclusive was very close to Detroit, with fewer than 4,000 boxed sales separating the two.

And then at No.3 is the remastered version of Dark Souls. Again, this game was also pretty close to the Top Two. The Switch version is still to come for this title.

It's the biggest change to the UK physical charts we've seen in almost two months. God of War actually slips down to No.5, because price activity around FIFA 18 saw that game's sales increase 59% week-on-week so that it makes No.4 (although actually it dropped two places).

God of War's drop comes despite a 5% increase in sales.

All of this is insane.

[Julius]

7 minutes ago, drahkon said:

UK Sales Charts: Week Ending 26th May, 2018

1. Detroit: Become Human
2. State of Decay 2
3. Dark Souls Remastered
4. FIFA 18
5. God of War
6. Far Cry 5
7. Overwatch
8. Destiny 2
9. Fallout 4
10. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

All of this is insane.

That’s nuts. Should be interesting to see if these trends are consistent with the NPDs.

[Hero-of-Time]

Sales in the UK for the month of May are quite interesting. 

Quote

Despite a trio of strong games having launched last week, God of War wasn’t threatened in the monthly charts, and managed to keep its top spot in May. Sales for Sony Santa Monica’s hit were only down 55 per cent month-on-month, a very healthy drop.

Between Donkey Kong, Hyrule Warriors and usual top sellers like Mario Kart, Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild, the market share for the Switch increased month-on-month, reaching 18.1 per cent in units, against 12.5 per cent in April. In terms of value, the Switch was 23.8 per cent of the market in May (against 14.8 per cent in April) overtaking the Xbox One and its 21.3 per cent.

Sony remained the top publisher in May, with Nintendo being a very (very) close second.

Meanwhile, another PS4 exclusive, Detroit: Become Human, made it to No.5 despite only having been on shelves for two days when GfK closed its report on May 26th. Meanwhile, Xbox One exclusive State of Decay 2, having released on May 22nd, debuted at No.6.

UK’s top ten games for May 2018:

1. God of War
2. FIFA 18
3. Far Cry 5
4. Donkey Kong County: Tropical Freeze
5. Detroit: Become Human
6. State of Decay 2
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
8. Fallout 4
9. Lego Marvel Superheroes 2
10. Dark Souls Remastered

God of War sales remain very strong and Detroit is off to a good start. The biggest takeaway from this though is that Nintendo overtook Microsoft. Microsoft's strongest markets were the US and UK but that now looks to be in jeopardy. It's a fantastic achievement for Nintendo, as the UK market isn't usually interested in their products. Now more than ever I think its important that Microsoft need to have an amazing E3.

[Happenstance]

14 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Now more than ever I think its important that Microsoft need to have an amazing E3.

I feel like we say that every year and every year they do enough to impress but it amounts to nothing. At this point it just seems like they need the next generation needs to hurry up and start for them for a blank slate.

[Rummy]

All pretty interesting stuff! Curious to see if Nintendo sustains, it if the hacking vulnerability has maybe pushed more current systems off of shelves.

[Ronnie]

On 6/4/2018 at 8:09 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

Sales in the UK for the month of May are quite interesting. 

God of War sales remain very strong and Detroit is off to a good start. The biggest takeaway from this though is that Nintendo overtook Microsoft. Microsoft's strongest markets were the US and UK but that now looks to be in jeopardy. It's a fantastic achievement for Nintendo, as the UK market isn't usually interested in their products. Now more than ever I think its important that Microsoft need to have an amazing E3.

Given the UK is probably Nintendo's weakest market, this does seem like good news for them. I'm a bit confused about the data though, does that mean more people in the UK have Switches than have Xbox Ones? Or just Switch sold more than Xbox that month?

[Hero-of-Time]

50 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Given the UK is probably Nintendo's weakest market, this does seem like good news for them. I'm a bit confused about the data though, does that mean more people in the UK have Switches than have Xbox Ones? Or just Switch sold more than Xbox that month?

I think it was just that month but it's still a good result for them.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

Given the UK is probably Nintendo's weakest market, this does seem like good news for them. I'm a bit confused about the data though, does that mean more people in the UK have Switches than have Xbox Ones? Or just Switch sold more than Xbox that month?

It's just for this month, but it's still a huge achievement!

Granted that it was a pretty weak month for MS and a pretty strong one for Nintendo, but considering that the US and UK are MS's two main strongholds (and the UK is Nintendo's biggest weakpoint), it's still pretty surprising to see!

[Ganepark32]

Looks as though Vampyr got off go a very good start in the UK last week, knocking FIFA 18 off the top of the all formats chart. Chart Track are saying it was close buy that's still an incredible achievement for Dontnod and what is a very niche game. I suspect it'll fall through the charts quickly but it's good news for the devs to know they can create these unique games and have them take off.

https://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p/software/uk/latest/index_test.jsp&ct=110015

[Hero-of-Time]

Here are some end of year NPD predictions from analysts.

Quote

• Switch is projected to be the highest selling console of the year (attributed to a strong final quarter thanks to Pokemon and Smash)
• All three consoles will sell over 4 million units in US this year
• Cumulatively, the consoles will sell 17.5 million units in the US, leading to the highest total in the market since 2012
• By year’s end, installed base of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will exceed that of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox by 6 percent and will be ahead of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by at least 30 percent for their respective equivalent time periods
• In spite of the doom and gloom, physical video game software dollar sales will finish the year with growth of at least 8 percent when compared to a year ago, while digital full-game sales will continue to grow at double digit percentage rates.
• Fortnite continues to drive growth and revenue
• PS4 is selling above expectations
• The Xbox One has shown very strong growth so far this year and is on pace to have the highest time-aligned annual growth rate for console unit sales since the Xbox 360 in 2010. 
• Nintendo Switch has the second highest time-aligned installed base for a console in history, behind only the Wii

Pokemon is not on there due to it being 2 SKUs and Smash Bros will release in December, thus not having much of an impact before the year is over.

It's going to be interesting to see if Red Dead does the insane numbers that many are expecting it to do. Many publishers have already moved their games away from its release in fear of it. I wonder if Rockstar will pull a GTAV and not have the online side of things launch with the game?

[killthenet]

Just had a look at VGchartz figures for 2017 and from that I can definitely see Red Dead being in the top 3 sellers but I don't know if it's going to outsell Call Of Duty and FIFA. Would be surprised if it didn't break 10m considering who's developing it and the amount of hype the gaming press have given it but it won't do GTA numbers so it'll probably be close between it and Call Of Duty.

[Mandalore]

In app spending reaches $50m in Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. It's a sorry state of affairs when even a poorly rated Nintendo game is raking it in with micro-transactions on mobile phones. Share holders must be screaming at them to just shove all of their series on phones for quick money.

[Rummy]

On 08/09/2018 at 9:14 AM, Mandalore said:

In app spending reaches $50m in Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. It's a sorry state of affairs when even a poorly rated Nintendo game is raking it in with micro-transactions on mobile phones. Share holders must be screaming at them to just shove all of their series on phones for quick money.

I agree it is pretty ridiculous to consider the takings of it, but is it not just a symptom of the increasingly available global market all adding up on a small scale to a notable total?

[Dcubed]

Holy crap!!

 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/red-dead-redemption-2-become-the-second-biggest-retail-launch-of-the-year-in-uk-27-of-gtav-launch.77480/

 

Quote

UK retail sales figures are out for Red Dead Redemption 2 and while the title has sold very well indeed, it has failed to top FIFA 19, which remains the biggest week one release of the year.

Second place is highly respectable of course, but with huge development costs, the game will need to successfully monetise its online service in order to be considered a success – by Rockstar standards at least.

The title was never going to have the same draw as the company’s biggest franchise. And the games market is a very different place to 2013 when GTA V was released. But week one sales of 27 per cent of the biggest game launch of all-time is nothing to be sniffed at.

We await a report on digital sales from Rockstar or parent Take-Two.

Another way to look at the game is that RDR 2 claimed just over 60 per cent of the retail market this week, so the idea that no one was buying anything else this weekend is rather put to rest. Compare that to an incredible 89 per cent market share for GTA V on its launch week and you get an idea of how big it was out-of-the-blocks.

More recent comparisons of 75 per cent for FIFA 19 and just 44 per cent for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 show RDR 2 is doing well, though not outstandingly so, in dominating public consciousness at launch.

RDR2 only sold 27% of what GTA5 sold in its opening and failed to outdo FIFA19’s opening!

 

Considering the absolutely insanely long development cycle (roughly 8 years) and the phenomenal budget poured into this game (rumoured to be as high as $800 million), that’s actually a very poor result!  

 

I’m honestly stunned and shocked! I expected much better!

 

If this result is repeated in the US, RDR2 might actually be a bit of a flop! Potentially pretty damaging for Take Two if the rumoured budget is as sky high as it’s believed to be! (And considering that over 3,000 people worked on RDR2, it’s quite possibly true!)

 

Rockstar definitely won’t be happy with these numbers!

Edited October 28, 2018 by Dcubed

[Aperson]

Top 10 anime plot twists!

 

It is a big shock. I guess the Red Dead franchise just doesn't carry the same brand name as Grand Theft Auto. I didn't buy RDR2 but that's mainly due to a lack of interest in Rockstar games in general, SCVI which I got last week is proving to be taking up all my gaming time right now though that game only got number 8 in the charts last week and has probably slipped out of the top 10 this week unless all the custom characters going round on Twitter convinced people to buy it just for the creator.

[Sheikah]

UK retail sales figures are out for Red Dead Redemption 2 and while the title has sold very well indeed, it has failed to top FIFA 19, which remains the biggest week one release of the year. Second place is highly respectable of course, but with huge development costs, the game will need to successfully monetise its online service in order to be considered a success – by Rockstar standards at least. The title was never going to have the same draw as the company’s biggest franchise. And the games market is a very different place to 2013 when GTA V was released. But week one sales of 27 per cent of the biggest game launch of all-time is nothing to be sniffed at. 

We await a report on digital sales from Rockstar or parent Take-Two.

 

Another way to look at the game is that RDR 2 claimed just over 60 per cent of the retail market this week, so the idea that no one was buying anything else this weekend is rather put to rest. Compare that to an incredible 89 per cent market share for GTA V on its launch week and you get an idea of how big it was out-of-the-blocks.

 

More recent comparisons of 75 per cent for FIFA 19 and just 44 per cent for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 show RDR 2 is doing well, though not outstandingly so, in dominating public consciousness at launch.

 

RDR2 only sold 27% of what GTA5 sold in its opening and failed to outdo FIFA19’s opening!  

Considering the absolutely insanely long development cycle (roughly 8 years) and the phenomenal budget poured into this game (rumoured to be as high as $800 million), that’s actually a very poor result!  

 

I’m honestly stunned and shocked! I expected much better!

 

If this result is repeated in the US, RDR2 might actually be a bit of a flop! Potentially pretty damaging for Take Two if the rumoured budget is as sky high as it’s believed to be! (And considering that over 3,000 people worked on RDR2, it’s quite possibly true!)

 

Rockstar definitely won’t be happy with these numbers!

 

 

 

Whoa you're being full on with your exclamation marks! GTAV is the most profitable game of all time so to compare anything to it is always going to make it look poor. FIFA also does gangbusters in the UK so I'm not shocked on that one either.  

I didn't think RDR would come close to GTA (and I bet R* didn't think so either) purely because GTA is a franchise that has ridiculous levels of reach/adoption by the masses. Doesn't stop RDR being the best thing R* have ever done though. RDR will also get online next month and I don't doubt it will continue to sell very well indeed.

 

It's hard to say anything about this either way as this is UK figures only, and I believe retail (not online) only? When GTAV came out (last gen) digital was far less of a thing. FIFA will also factor far less in other territories like the US.

[dwarf]

It's only been out for half a week, though. Am I missing something?

[Sheikah]

5 hours ago, dwarf said:

It's only been out for half a week, though. Am I missing something?

No, you're not. GTAV also came out on a Tuesday whereas RDR2 came out on a Friday. There's a lot of reasons to explain the difference.