Supermarket’s GTA V market share dipped sharply for next-gen release

Grand Theft Auto V’s jump from last-gen to next-gen appears to have brought with it a shift in the buying habits of UK gamers.

Kantar Wordpanel’s Q1 UK retail report says that while the supermarkets claimed a 53.3 per cent share of GTA V’s physical sales when it was originally released on PS3 and Xbox 360, their share of the PS4 and Xbox One version fell to one third – a dip of 20 per cent.

In fact, supermarkets have seen their share of the overall physical entertainment market decline thanks to sharp losses in their share of the video games sector.

There has also been a 3.3 per cent decline in the overall physical entertainment market (including music, video and games), with 1.4m fewer customers buying physical entertainment year-on-year. These losses have been partially offset, though, by an increase in price and what Kantar describes as more frequent purchasing”.

The rate of decline has reduced, too, having stood at 13.1 per cent and 4.7 per cent in the final two quarters of 2014.

Amazon not only remains the largest UK entertainment retailer but also enjoyed the biggest growth in the period, climbing 4.3 per cent to claim a 23.1 per cent market share. GAME also enjoyed 0.2 per cent growth, grabbing 9.7 per cent. Also on the up was Argos, jumping 1.9 per cent.

There were uniform drops across the board for supermarkets, however, including Tesco (-0.4%, 14.7%), Asda (-3.6%, 9.4%), Sainsbury’s (-0.5%, 7.2%) and Morrisons (-0.6%, 2.3%).