Geobros

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Dec 31, 2018
670
EA, Activision, Microsoft and Nintendo were the big Black Friday winners at UK games retail.

1.3 million physical games were sold during the build-up to Black Friday and through to the Saturday, which is actually 22% lower than the same period last year. However, last year did benefit from a few bigger releases during Christmas, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Battlefield V (the latter being released during Black Friday itself).

The most popular console in terms of game sales (we haven't received any hardware indication yet) was PS4, with just shy of 500,000 games sold during the week. This is followed relatively closely by Xbox One with 413,112 games sold for that platform. In third place comes Nintendo Switch with 361,967 games sold last week.

This year, EA has come out top of the charts with FIFA 20 the best-selling game of the week (just as FIFA 19 was the year prior). The game also benefitted from being bundled with PS4, which was discounted during the week. FIFA 20 sales rose 226% week-on-week.

Also bundled with PS4 consoles was Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which comes in at No.2 (sales up 86%). Meanwhile Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (which was also bundled with Xbox One hardware) drops one place to No.3 - however, sales of that game also increased 32% week-on-week.

Hardware bundles played a major part in the Black Friday charts and it's most explicit at No.4 where you will find Sea of Thieves - an Xbox One game that launched in March 2018. Sea of Thieves was included in all variety of bundles for the Xbox One S All-Digital console. which was on sale for between £110 to £140 during Black Friday (arguably the most aggressive hardware offer last week). Minecraft was also included in those Xbox One S bundles and that game is at No.5 (just over 500 units behind Sea of Thieves).
 
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ghostcrew

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Oct 27, 2017
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Crazy Black Friday bundles doing work for Sea of Thieves *pirate kiss*
 

Deleted member 32018

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You could get hold of the SAD for £99-£120 this past week so that's the obvious reason why SoT is no.4.
 

Bricktop

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Oct 27, 2017
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Who cares if it's part of a bundle? Either way it's a positive, these bundles are selling like hotcakes.
 

KORNdog

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Oct 30, 2017
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Lots of people buy not so great games around Black Friday it seems. Hell, I myself bought anthem for £4...because it came with 6 months of free Spotify. Lol.
 

Garrison

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Oct 27, 2017
3,152
Great news. In this respect Microsoft is being very smart about which games it chooses to bundle.

Games that have such longevity as sea of thieves and Minecraft will keep players searching for content once they enjoy the gameplay loop of those games.

I for sure have met quite a few casuals who buy a console with one game, even amazing games for a fact and then just let the thing rot there for ages after they've finished it.
 

Yuntu

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Nov 7, 2019
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Wanted to compare Pokemon drops to Sun/Moon and then I realized those came out the week of Black Friday in EU. Totally forgot that.
 

H-I-M

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Apr 26, 2018
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The most popular console in terms of game sales (we haven't received any hardware indication yet) was PS4

clap3.gif
 

SlipperyMoose

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Oct 28, 2017
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Sea of thieves is that game that pops up every now and again with impressive stats. Definitely a game with legs in one form or another.
 
Apr 4, 2018
4,799
Vancouver, BC
Sea of Thieves is better than ever, so this is great to see.

I had an amazing time playing this past weekend. I must say, it probably has the best post-launch updates from any game that I've played. Rare has just expanded the game with smart addition after addition, and it's combined to create such a great, unique experience. If they improve the combat and land-based enemy encounters, it will be one of the best games.
 

Saint-14

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Nov 2, 2017
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Psyrgery

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I bought a physical copy because it was dirt cheap and it was missing from my collection, so yeah nice to see I helped.
 

Deleted member 20297

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What's the hardware ratio in the UK?
PS4 6.8 million:


Xbox One 4.6 million:



If you have better data or sources, provide them.

Did you even read the article? It literally says it's sales actually increased.

I have. The increase in sales was less than for many other titles, many of them released way before DS.
 
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DrDeckard

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,109
UK
Peeps buying Xbox just to play Sea of Thieves. Nice.

loveit :)
Anything else would be a shame as it comfortably leads hardware sales. It's more surprising that the amount of games sold doesn't represent the ratio in hardware advantage.

is the PS4 lead like 70/30 in UK or is it closer to 60/40

probably closer to 50/50 after this Black Friday...All digital putting in work. In stores and on sales digitally.

edit, holy shit PS4 at 66/33 console split in UK but only selling 80 thousand more copies of games.

xbox had an insane Black Friday.
 

upinsmoke

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Oct 26, 2017
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loveit :)


is the PS4 lead like 70/30 in UK or is it closer to 60/40

probably closer to 50/50 after this Black Friday...All digital putting in work. In stores and on sales digitally.

edit, holy shit PS4 at 66/33 console split in UK but only selling 80 thousand more copies of games.

xbox had an insane Black Friday.
You think xbox one sold 2-3 million to bring the split down to 50/50?? :DDD

You'd expect Xbox to sell more honestly, one edition of the console was half the price of PS4 so I'll be interested to see the hardware sales.
 

Saint-14

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Nov 2, 2017
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That's normal for Black Friday, the games that get the biggest increase will be those pushed heavily by bundles and price reduction, also im pretty sure that Xbox number is wrong, last time we got a comparison between the 2 PS4 was a little over a million ahead (which was last year I believe).
 

shark97

Banned
Nov 7, 2017
5,327
loveit :)


is the PS4 lead like 70/30 in UK or is it closer to 60/40

probably closer to 50/50 after this Black Friday...All digital putting in work. In stores and on sales digitally.

edit, holy shit PS4 at 66/33 console split in UK but only selling 80 thousand more copies of games.

xbox had an insane Black Friday.


It's not 66/33...Probably more like 1.33:1, or 55%/45%.

That was the ratio for the CESA or whatever numbers at end of 2018 anyway.

Edit: Coincidentally 500k:413k almost exactly matches the above 55/45 ratio.

But does these include digital?
 

GreenEarth

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Oct 24, 2019
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I have. The increase in sales was less than for many other titles, many of them released way before DS.
"Yes, I know its sales increased, but here's why that is still bad"... Lmao confirmation bias at its finest level.

Black Friday week is about deals and Death Stranding had none. So how exactly is it bad legs that it increased in sales?
 

shark97

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Nov 7, 2017
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Saint-14

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wow if true. Death stranding is a major flop.

Would you say Jedi is a major flop?
What is so hard in using Google instead of defending what doesn't need to be defended?
There are more if you are interested in doing a google search on your own.
Why did you reply to that when there is clearly another post after it?
 

Deleted member 20297

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Yes, you found 1-2 no-name shops with a discount on the game. Congrats, I guess. Why would those shops move the needle in any way where it increasing in sale in a very competitive week is bad signs for the game?
Wait, others just have outpaced it in terms of sales during BF. The article itself used "plummeted" to place 33, these are not my words. It was even bundled with Spiderman, the hottest bundle from last year and of the most successful bundles Sony ever had.
I really don't know what is to defend here, to be honest.