The UK physical games market fell 15.8 percent to £1.78bn in 2016, according to the latest figures from GfK.
Sales of PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, 3DS and older systems suffered a considerable drop, falling by 27 percent. Home consoles generated £503m of revenue in 2016 compared to £689.5m in 2015. The only exception was Nintendo’s 3DS range, which was given a welcome boost by the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon, a title which in turn had huge awareness thanks to Pokémon GO on smartphones.
Despite this positive news, Nintendo had a pretty torrid year in general, with the Wii U accounting for just 2.1 percent of the total revenue generated in the UK games market last year. In comparison, Sony’s PS4 claimed 48.2 percent of the market, with the Xbox One 36.3 hoovering up percent. The 3DS on the other hand managed to claim a 6 percent share. The Wii hung in there with 0.2 percent – the same amount as the PS Vita. The NES Mini was not included in these figures.
In terms of publishing, Nintendo ranked fourth this year, with an 8.2 percent share of the market. There weren’t many Nintendo titles in the top 50 software sales for the year, as you might expect – EA’s FIFA 17 came out top.
2017 should be more positive, with the Nintendo Switch launching
