Game’s market share boosted by Playstation 4 and Xbox One launches
New figures on the games market have shown that the launch of PS4 and Xbox One helped Game to increase its share of the entertainment market by 2.3% in the run-up to Christmas.
The latest data from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks ending 22 December 2013, shows that Game’s existing customers spent £9 million more than in the same period in the previous year.
Kantar also found that Game claimed 30% of PS4 and Xbox One games sales and gained £10 million from winning shoppers from other retailers. Furthermore, over £4 million of this was taken from the supermarket sector, which underperformed in the Next Gen games space.
Kantar’s strategic insight director Fiona Keenan said: “This is a clear sign that consumers still require advice and support when shopping for technical products and retailers should try to make the most of this opportunity.
Never Miss a Retail Update!“The release of new consoles in the games market has really boosted software sales in a period where music and video are suffering; the video games market is relatively stable, down by only 2% year-on-year, while video and music have suffered heavy annual declines of 22% and 16% respectively.”
Meanwhile, Amazon posted its highest ever market share and now holds over a quarter of the market (26.3%) – a 5.9 percentage point growth compared with the same period last year.
Keenan continued: “Amazon traditionally performs strongly in gifting at Christmas and this year was no exception. Almost a third of all entertainment gifts purchased in the final quarter of 2013 were bought from the retailer and this drove its market share to increase across all categories.”
Video remained the most gifted entertainment product with family titles doing particularly well – Despicable Me 2 was the most popular gift, followed by Monster’s University and then the much hyped Breaking Bad.
