UK games retail generated £17.9m last week

The UK games retail market rallied last week thanks to the release of EA’s Mass Effect 3 and Capcom’s Street Fighter X Tekken.

The pair helped break a two-week decline, generating a 47.9 per cent increase in market value to 17.9m. Unit sales rose 27.2 per cent.

However, the market was down compared to when Mass Effect 2 hit shelves in January 2010. UK games retail generated 22.8m that week – almost 5m more than it could manage two years later.

That’s not to discredit Mass Effect 3. The space shooter RPG outsold its predecessors’ week-one sales combined and became the biggest No.1 of 2012 so far. It garnered more sales than the previous four No.1s – SSX, UFC 3, Uncharted and Reckoning – combined.

Other new entries Street Fighter X Tekken and The Sims 3: Showtime debuted at No.3 and No.6 respectively.

The week-on-week growth in the market came despite Mass Effect 3, Street Fighter X Tekken and The Sims 3: Showtime not being stocked in GAME and Gamestation.

Expect another strong performance for EA next week with continued sales of Mass Effect 3 and the arrival of FIFA Street today (Friday, March 16th).