U.K. chart data for the week ending Dec. 29 has revealed a bunch of interesting data on the U.K. games industry as we head into 2019.
For starters, Nintendo’s physical game sales saw an overall increase of 90.1 percent over the previous year with revenue increasing by 73.4 percent. Of course this should come as no surprise, as the Switch had only been available for 10 months the previous year and had a smaller install base.
Nintendo Switch games as a whole made up 24 percent of the U.K. market in 2018 but PS4 still remains the dominant system, with 42.2 percent of all sales. PS4 sales dropped by 9.7 percent, however.
The driving force behind Switch’s performance was, of course, the popular title Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Although the game has only been out for less then a month, Ultimate was the fourth most-sold game in the U.K. during the last week of the year.
Although this is great news for Nintendo, the industry as a whole suffered a setback over the holiday season. Revenue generated from physical sales declined 2.8 percent. The likely reason behind this decline is the rise in digital sales on consoles and PC.
