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UK game industry shrank 18% in 2009

ELSPA reports British Isles revenue hit $5.3 billion last year on sales of 6.7 million combined consoles, 74.6 million games.

It has been evident all year that the gaming industry has been navigating choppy economic waters across the globe. Yesterday, Japanese stat-tracking firm Enterbrain offered one of the first accounts of full-calendar-year earnings, announcing that Nintendo and Sony's home nation saw total game-industry revenues slip 6.9 percent to ¥542.6 billion ($5.91 billion).

The Xbox 360 was the UK's top earner in 2009.

The Xbox 360 was the UK's top earner in 2009.

Today, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association reported its sales figures for the UK gaming market during the 2009 calendar year, and as with Japan, the year that was could not keep up with 2008. Citing figures provided by GfK Chart-Track, ELSPA said total industry sales, including hardware, software, and accessories, amounted to £3.311 billion ($5.3 billion) on the year, down from the £4.034 billion ($6.46 billion) brought in during 2008.

Hardware sales in the region totaled £1.06 billion ($1.7 billion) during the period, a drop that ELSPA attributed primarily to price reductions from all three console manufacturers. ELSPA did not provide specific sales figures, saying only that Nintendo's Wii outperformed the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and noting that all three combined to sell 6.7 million units. The industry body also noted that the PS3 saw the only unit-sales growth, as Sony's system sales rose 2 percent.

GfK Chart-Track's software figures for the UK in 2009 came in at £1.621 billion ($2.6 billion). The Xbox 360's software sales grew 4 percent during the year, with the platform's catalog collectively earning £459 million ($735 million) to make it the top-grossing format in the region. ELSPA reports that the PS3 saw substantial software sales growth, shifting 11.9 million units during the year--a 14 percent increase. All said, more than 74.6 million software units across platforms were sold in the UK during the year.

Lastly, UK console and PC gaming peripherals came in at £630 million ($1 billion) in 2009, with consumers snatching up 35.8 million odds and ends.

17 Comments

  • oneligas

    Posted Jan 8, 2010 11:31 am GMT

    @ Big_K-lashy sorrrry gov'nor

  • RockySquirrel

    Posted Jan 8, 2010 3:15 am GMT

    Replace afternoon tea with afternoon Wii...

  • Elvis4576

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 4:15 pm GMT

    nothing new the entire worlds pretty much like this i hope it starts getting better

  • Big_K-lashy

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 3:16 pm GMT

    @Oneligas. Wow, your amazingly originality and witty insult has really impressed me and everybody else thats going to read your amazing and funny comment. Please, tell me how you can think of such fantastic lines? You're an idiot. I assume from your comment you're a little immature boy that actually knows very very little. I pity people with minds like yours... This websites about gaming and if you're that pathetic you can't even stick to the subject matter then what are you doing wasting your time? Don't embarrass America or whatever country you are from by acting like a small minded little idiot.

  • FF_fan2004

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 1:36 pm GMT

    Games are a bit expensive nowadays irregardless. It's bad enough that Britain's economy isn't that good now compared to the other countries. It's all Gordon Brown's fault!

  • oneligas

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 12:39 pm GMT

    this doesn't mean its that bad in the UK. it will really be bad when you read about the economy cutting into the tea and crumpet industry in the UK.

  • Sins-of-Mosin

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 10:20 am GMT

    @ Bashers79 - According to a few sites, a game that costs you 30 Pounds would cost us around 48 Dollars. Considering we pay 60 Dollars for games I think you can stop your QQing.

  • tatu2004

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 9:00 am GMT

    that's bad news hope it all gets better soon

  • KrazzyDJ

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 7:46 am GMT

    Well, lots of eagerly awaited games got pushed back to 2010 which might have contributed to some losses. In addition, the number of console units sold might have declined due to recession and the revenue generated by these could have further declined due to price cuts.

  • Bashers79

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 2:17 am GMT

    hardly surpriseing considering we pay through the nose for everything. I get fed up of reading comments from Americans b*tching about how much they have to pay for things, you don't know how good you've got it.

  • Raizer-Sabre

    Posted Jan 7, 2010 1:38 am GMT

    recent recession probably didn't help there either

  • Kats_RK

    Posted Jan 6, 2010 11:21 pm GMT

    damn thats alot of money

  • mariokart64fan

    Posted Jan 6, 2010 11:12 pm GMT

    wow wii is definatelly leaving its mark ,, marching to 70 million pretty soon ,

  • monson21502

    Posted Jan 6, 2010 11:02 pm GMT

    uk is good people. i love they way they talk. im sure sales will bounce back next year

  • lamprey263

    Posted Jan 6, 2010 8:58 pm GMT

    I think these stories about decreases in game sales of hardware and software are directly related to the rather dry releases we had in 2009 compared to those of 2008, and 2008 had one of the strongest line-up of games ever, which really helps holiday sales of games being that nearly half of industry sales take place in the 4th quarter

    sure we had a small handful of quality titles this 4th quarter, like Borderlands, Dragon Age, Modern Warfare 2, and Left 4 Dead 2, and Uncharted 2, but that line-up of games isn't going to push software and hardware like last years line-up of hot titles, like Dead Space, Resistance 2, Gears of War 2, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Fable 3, Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, Call of Duty: WaW, Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge, Far Cry 2, Tomb Raider Underworld, Tom Clancy's Endwar, and Persona 4

    I think both the quality and quantity of the games released have a dramatic impact of game sales, and not just for pushing games sales but getting people out to by the hardware as well

    part of the reason I think 2009's sales are down though is because publishers didn't want a repeat of 2008's 4th quarter, 'cause even though sales were up, we had so many great games released in the 4th quarter that some companies didn't reach their expected sales due to all the competition of having so many quality titles released at once, ironically to avoid this EVERYONE just decided to release these games in the 1st quarter of 2010 instead

  • kris9031998

    Posted Jan 6, 2010 6:41 pm GMT

    Oh Noes!

  • ShinobiKairi

    Posted Jan 6, 2010 6:21 pm GMT

    Great... :/

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