New low for UK games market

The UK games market’s weekly value has fallen to its lowest point since May 2006, according to Gfk Chart-Track.

According to MCV’s calculations, based on today’s Gfk-ChartTrack/UKIE weekly report, the UK market has hit 11.8 million for the week ending September 11th, down from 14.2 million the week before. The weekly value hasn’t topped 20 million since the launch of Red Dead Redemption in May.

The number of games sold was just 624,806, down 14 per cent compared to the week before.

It has been a tough year for the UK games industry. Weekly sales compiled by Chart-Track shows that the market is trending well below what was achieved in 2009.

And this summer retailers HMV, Argos and Toys R Us have all blamed games for a slump in sales.

Fortunately the fall in sales will be arrested this week with the eagerly awaited release of Halo: Reach and PlayStation Move.

The market data does not factor in pre-owned or digital sales.