Good April for games in UK

Good news at last – more money was made from games software in April 2011 than the same period last year.

According to UKIE/GfK Chart-Track data, retailers made almost 70m from game sales last month, a modest increase of 1.8 per cent compared to April 2010.

It’s the first time that’s happened this year. January, February and March were all down compared with the same months in 2010.

However, just over 3m games were sold last month, a 5.8 per cent drop compared to 3.2m games sold in April 2010.

The Easter bank holiday weekend would have helped boost the figures, but the big sales driver was Valve’s Portal 2. The first person puzzler (published at retail by EA) was the biggest selling game last month, and that’s without counting digital sales through Steam.

EA had three other titles in the April Top Ten – Crysis 2, FIFA 11 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 at No.5, No.7 and No.9 respectively.

Other big winners in April included Warner, who shot up the publisher rankings thanks to Mortal Kombat. The violent brawler was the third biggest selling game of April in the UK and was even No.1 in the PS3 chart.

505 Games also climbed the charts thanks to strong sales of Zumba Fitness .

THQ and DS both enjoyed a strong March thanks to Homefront and Pokmon respectively, but both have now slipped down the rankings slightly. Meanwhile, 3DS’ share of the software market dropped as consumers wait for the next wave of games.

The April Top Ten:

1. Portal 2 (EA)
2. Zumba Fitness (505 Games)
3. Mortal Kombat (Warner Bros)
4. LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (LucasArts)
5. Crysis 2 (EA)
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
7. FIFA 11 (EA)
8. Homefront (THQ)
9. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 (EA)
10. Pokmon Black (Nintendo)