April sales stumble as blockbusters dry up

Just 1.58m boxed games were sold last month in the UK, as the number of major launches dwindle.

It’s a drop of 21.6 per cent over the same period in 2012. And over 1m fewer games were sold in April compared to March.

The boxed software sector generated 37.8m in revenue during April, which is a drop of 17.6 per cent year-on-year.

A lack of major new titles can be blamed for the fall. The highest charting new release last month was Deep Silver’s Dead Island Riptide, which reached No.4 in the charts. And that game was only on sale for two days when this data was collected. Furthermore, Easter fell in April last year, while this year it happened in March.

Defiance also made the Top Five, but the best selling games were March releases BioShock Infinite (No.1) and Tomb Raider (No.2).

The market is expected to keep shrinking until GTA V and the next generation arrive at the end of the year. It’s then that retailers are expecting a upturn in sales.

In the meantime, stores will have to work with digital cards, merchandise and the few releases that are coming to market. All data is courtesy of UKIE/GfK Chart-Track.