UK software market to hit £1.9bn in ’08

It’s already been a record-breaking year for video games sales in the UK, with unheard of Q1, Q2, and Q3 sales – and the market’s total value for the year has already beaten 2007’s value, MCV can reveal.

The UK software market is on course to toast another record-breaking year, according to MCV calculations based on the weekly data provided by Gfk-ChartTrack/ELSPA, with the 2008 software market set to be worth in excess of 1.9bn by the end of the year.

That doesn’t include the sales of peripherals or hardware, either, which could well double that number once the official Gfk-ChartTrack data is revealed in the new year.

Earlier this week, the market’s total value rolled past the 1.7bn mark, which was last year’s total software market valuation.

So far the market value has averaged out to 35m a week with the stand out trading not just coming during the peak seasons, but also around special releases as well. During the week GTA IV was released at UK retail, the market value for UK software sales was 65.3m (for the week ending May 3rd)

The weekend that Call of Duty: World at War and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King also saw a big hike in market value – and the start of the Christmas trading period helped it as well, no doubt. For that week, ending November 15th, the market value for UK software was 77.9m – up 20m on the previous week’s 57.8m.

And most recently, for the week ending December 13th, the software market was worth 94.4m, the biggest week so far games retail.

But this week and the days leading up to Christmas promise to be big spending periods, too, helping secure the fact that in 2008 sales of games software in the UK have been at the highest ever seen.