UK games retail plunges in February

February was a tough month for UK retail, with sales of new boxed games down 23 per cent year-on-year.

In total 3,261,590 games were sold last month. In terms of revenue retail took home 72.6m. This was down 22.1 per cent compared to February 2010.

Once again 360 was the dominant platform, with Xbox games accounting for 29 per cent of all the titles sold last month. PS3 followed in second place, with Wii coming in third.

Meanwhile, EA continues to be the biggest publisher, taking over 20 per cent of the market last month.

The firm had four games in the month’s Top Ten, including Dead Space 2 at No.2 and new release Bulletstorm.

In terms of units, Ubisoft is the second biggest publisher and Nintendo is third. In terms of value, those positions are reversed.

The February Top Ten
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
2. Dead Space 2 (EA)
3. FIFA 11 (EA)
4. Test Drive Unlimited 2 (Atari/Namco Bandai)
5. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
6. Killzone 3 (Sony)
7. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
8. Bulletstorm (EA)
9. Marvel vs Capcom 3 (Capcom)
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)