UK games retail revenues drop to £14.1m

UK games retail generated 14.1m last week – a dip of 21.2 per cent from the 17.9m made during the week prior.

Unit sales also dropped 11.2 per cent to 570,969 forthe week ending March 17th.

EA continued its chart dominance last week with four games in the Top Five. New release FIFA Street debuted at the top of the charts, giving EA its third new release in a row that went straight to No.1. It’s the best opening week for a FIFA Street game.

But despite the early success of Street, and the fact it wasn’t available from GAME, there wasn’t enough interest to grow the market.

Sony’s new PS3 release Twisted Metal debuted at No.12 in the All Formats Top 40. Rage and Zumba Fitness also performed well last week, with respective sales increases of 47 per cent and 15 per cent.

Of course, these numbers don’t include sales of downloadable games. Apple’s iPad 3 went on sale last week, as did Sony’s highly acclaimed PS3 download title Journey. Today’s biggest new boxed releases include Kid Icarus: Uprising and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.