All-time low for UK games retail

UK games retailers made 8.4m from software sales last week, the lowest since records began.

The market has been teetering at this level for a few weeks now as new releases dry up. 394,688 games were sold in total for the week, with Sega’s official Olympics game the No.1 seller.

This is according to data from UKIE/GfK Chart-Track

The UK games retail sector has been suffering severe difficulties this year, a combination of economic woes, the end of the console cycle, the rise of digital and downloadable content, while some analysts suggest that the various events – including the Queen’s Jubilee, the European Championships and now the Olympics – have been turning customers off from the High Street.

However, there’s high hopes that Christmas could still be a strong selling period, with a number of blockbusters scheduled for release. MCV recently detailed the 20 games that retailers expect to generate some 320m over Q4. You can read about them in the latest issue of MCV.

Obviously these figures don’t factor in the sales of digital download games, or the money generated from MMOs, free-to-play games or streaming services.