Tesco one of biggest winners from release of Grand Theft Auto V
New figures on the games market have revealed that the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto V has pushed the market back into growth for the first time in five years, with Tesco and Asda benefiting most from its release.
The data from Kantar Worldpanel, which covers the 12 weeks ending 29 September 2013, shows that the game’s release helped the overall market to grow by 29% compared with the same period last year. Tesco was found to be the big winner, collecting over a third of all money spent on the title during the two weeks after its release. Asda and Game also benefited with both growing their shares on the same period last year.
Fiona Keenan, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “It will be interesting to see if the success of the supermarkets in the games sector continues this Christmas with the release of PS4 and Xbox One. Game and Amazon are leading the way in pre-orders so far, and we expect specialist gaming retailers to do particularly well in the run up to launch as consumers look for help and advice.”
When looking at the wider entertainment market, Kantar’s research shows that Amazon maintained its position as the top retailer in the UK with a fifth of the market, increasing its share in music, video and games this year.
Meanwhile, Tesco and Asda were found to be the two fastest growing retailers in the entertainment sector, claiming second and third place with a respective 17.1% and 12.1% of the market. However, HMV was found to have lost 7.4 percentage points since last year, with the majority of its former shoppers going to its three larger rivals.
In film, the release of Star Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 served to further boost the position of the supermarkets which claimed 81% of the total spend on these titles. In music, Amazon was found to have made major headway over the past few months and now accounts for over a quarter of all sales.
