ANALYSIS: Q3 market data

Electronic Arts maintained a generous chunk of market share in the third quarter of the year, MCV-published data can reveal.

The quarterly ELSPA/GfK-ChartTrack data this week shows shows that the publisher accounted for over 17 per cent of games sales in unit terms from July to September – and over 20 per cent of the market in value terms.

EA had a four-game run in the top ten games for the period, with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Fight Night Round 4, Need For Speed: Shift and Harry Potter at places six to nine.

Wii Sports Resort was the biggest selling game of the quarter, however, by a considerable margin – although its debut didn’t change the Nintendo console’s market share, which held firm at 23 per cent.

Other star performers were Eidos and Batman: Arkham Asylum – the game was the second best selling game in Q3 and helped the firm leap up the charts and into the top ten ranking for publishers in unit terms for the period. Almost three million units of the game have been sold globally.

Despite those individual company successes, the overall market was down on last year.

Q3 sales were worth 243m versus 2008’s 316m (and 2007’s 292m), continuing the Q2 2009 trend where the market sales were down over 100m from 366m to 265m.

IN COMPARISON: 2009 SO FAR vs 2008 VS 2007
Q1 2007 – 280m
Q2 2007 – 243m
Q3 2007 – 292m
Q4 2007 – 744m

Q1 2008 – 373m
Q2 2008 – 366m
Q3 2008 – 316m
Q4 2008 – 852m

Q1 2009 – 371m
Q2 2009 – 265m
Q3 2009 – 243m

Q3 – TOP TEN GAMES
1. WII SPORTS RESORT – Nintendo
2. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM – Eidos
3. HALO 3: ODST – Microsoft
4. WII FIT – Nintendo
5. ASHES CRICKET 2009 – Codemasters
6. TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10 – EA
7. FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 – EA
8. NEED FOR SPEED: SHIFT – EA
9. HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE – EA
10. CALL OF JUAREZ: BOUND IN BLOOD – Ubisoft

FORMAT MARKET SHARE (UNITS)
NINTENDO WII – 23.0%
XBOX 360 – 21.7%
NINTENDO DS – 20.5%
PLAYSTATION 3 – 15.9%
PC – 11.5%
SONY PSP – 4.4%
PLAYSTATION 2 – 2.7%

Q3 PUBLISHER SHARE – VALUE (last quarter in brackets)
1 (1) ELECTRONIC ARTS – 20.2%
2 (2) NINTENDO – 15.8%
3 (3) ACTIVISION BLIZZARD – 13.0%
4 (5) UBISOFT – 6.8%
5 (15) CODEMASTERS – 5.5%
6 (19) EIDOS – 5.4%
7 (10) MICROSOFT – 5.1%
8 (6) SEGA – 3.7%
9 (7) SCEE – 3.2%
10 (4) THQ – 3.2%

Q3 PUBLISHER SHARE – UNITS (last quarter in brackets)
1 (1) ELECTRONIC ARTS – 17.6%
2 (2) NINTENDO – 14.4%
3 (3) ACTIVISION BLIZZARD – 10.8%
4 (4) UBISOFT – 8.3%
5 (9) MICROSOFT – 4.4%
6 (6) SEGA – 4.3%
7 (15) CODEMASTERS – 4.3%
8 (5) THQ – 3.9%
9 (7) SCEE – 3.9%
10 (18) EIDOS – 3.8%