Nintendo Dominates Surging UK Market In 2007

Data from ELSPA and Chart-Track showing UK hardware and software sales surging 42 percent in the past six months illustrate an exceptionally successful year so far for Nintendo, with the company dominating both handheld and home console hardware sales. Chart-Track reveals that total console hardware sales have risen by 51 percent in the first six months of the year, from 1.47 million to 2.22 million. As a percentage of the total market Nintendo dominated with 53 percent, followed by Sony on 34 percent and Microsoft on 12 percent. Handheld console sales rose by 8 percent to 0.93 million, with Nintendo enjoying 72 percent of the market and Sony 28 percent. This suggests combined Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance sales of 0.67 million and PSP sales of 0.26 million. The home console market saw a sales increase of 113 percent to 1.29 million units. Again Nintendo took the lion’s share of sales with the Wii, rising from a 1 percent market share in the first six months of 2006 to 40 percent this year. Sony was just behind with 39 percent, with Microsoft on 21 percent. This suggests Wii sales of 0.52 million, combined PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 sales of 0.50 million and Xbox 360 sales of 0.27 million. In software terms, unit sales rose by 19 percent to 26.01 million, with the PC leading the market with a 19 percent increase in games sales to 6.55 million units. The PlayStation 2 saw the greatest number of console game sales, despite a decrease of 23 percent to 6.49 million. The Nintendo DS saw the biggest increase in software sales, up 196 percent to 4.04 million, followed by the Xbox 360 with an increase of 131 percent to 3.14 million units. PSP software sales were more stagnant, with a 7 percent increase to 2.27 million. Despite its success in hardware sales the Wii saw more modest software sales of 1.57 million, compared to 0.93 million for the PlayStation 3. However, the small installed userbase for both systems, and traditionally quiet post-launch software schedules, will likely see considerable increases in 2008’s figures.