A new report has emerged online, shining the spotlight on the UK's entertainment markets in 2022. If you're at all interested in entertainment media and how it all hangs together, it's worth a read. Of course, it's stuffed with facts and figures about last year's video games and hardware, including some info on Sony's first-party software.
The UK's best-selling Sony game of 2022 was, fairly predictably, God of War Ragnarok, with physical and digital sales combining for a grand total of 670,617 copies. That puts the game at number six overall. Somewhat surprisingly, approximately a third of those copies were from the PS Store; software sales overwhelmingly trend towards digital, but in this case it's the reverse.
It's a similar story for Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7. The former sold 530,454 copies, putting it at number eight overall, with 22.8 per cent of those being digital sales. Meanwhile, the latter, in 12th position, sold 42.2 per cent of its 356,630 copies digitally. Among the top 20 top sellers from last year, these are the only three games with the majority of sales being from physical copies. We imagine this will be at least in part due to console bundles.
In case you're wondering, the top three best-selling games of 2022 in the UK were FIFA 23, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Elden Ring in that order.
Some other interesting statistics:
- The average cost of a boxed game in 2022 was £36.47. The average cost of a digital game in 2022 was £15.19
- 37.9 per cent of all digital sales in the UK last year were made via PS Store. It's second only to Steam, which commands 50.5 per cent of the UK's digital software market
- The PS5 sold 780,000 units last year in the UK which, despite selling fewer units than Nintendo's Switch, is enough to see it lead the hardware market in terms of value, with 43 per cent
If you're interested, check out the full report here.
[source eraltd.org, via resetera.com]
Comments 30
Doesn't surprise me that the high price games are still favoured physically. Don't think I've ever spent over £20 on a single digital game.
@StrawberryWave yes I agree. But I do tend to buy a lot of cheap digital stuff, sales etc. I figure under £20 or so I'm prepared to lose the perks of physical. More expensive games, yes physical definitely.
@StrawberryWave yeah digital is fantastic for retro games, I can't disagree with that.
N.i.c.e.God of war ragnarok.the g.o.a.t. goat 🐐 👑.word up son
Console bundles come with digital codes though right?
I have said it on here many time before, God of War is why i buy a PS. This game did not disappoint, i love it. Yeah I slightly wish it was PS5 only and not cross gen. But that didn’t take away from the fun of it. I mostly game on Series X, but Xbox has NOTHING like a God of War and i am so happy to see it selling well for Sony and Santa Monica Studios. Now give me Last of us Multiplayer so i have something to play with my Dual Sense Edge, cause i only own God of War and Last of Us part 1 for PS5 and neither need the Edge controller.
@dark_knightmare2 The official ones (game art on console box and such) do but retailers would bundle most consoles with games and accessories while supply was limited
I'll still never understand the infatuation with this series. But poor Horizon always gets robbed launching against some juggernaut series, botw the first time and gowr now... 😢
@Voltan yeah that’s what I figured and sales data analysts have said time and time again that bundled consoles count for minuscule sales of a game
@NEStalgia judging by sales charts for UK and US it did very well so no reason to feel bad for the series plus the expansion is coming next month and the vr title just launched so the series is obviously healthy and popular
Give us new game+ Santa Monica. I need to experience Ragnarok again.
Poor tricky dicky must be crying right now lol
I would be surprised but it seemed like Horizon Forbidden West didn't hit as hard as expected and Sony royally screwed up with some of its decisions for GT 7. God of War: Ragnarök, however, is an excellent sequel, and was marketed perfectly. Sony really took advantage of having one of the biggest brand exclusives for the holiday shopping period.
@dark_knightmare2 I'd like to think so, but I keep getting the feeling HFW is looking like a weak performer to Sony.
Plus as @rjejr keeps pointing out, it's like 5 weeks from burning shores (or Horizon BS as I call it 😂) and there's no price, preorder, or even mention of it. My theory is just delay, or it grew into a stand alone lost legacy/first light sort of deal and is delayed, but it kind of feels.... Bad.... Just no launch hype at all for it.
@NEStalgia it’s an expansion and like you said it’s five weeks away expansions don’t get hyped like brand new games. I def don’t think Sony sees it as an underperformer considering it was in the top ten best selling games of the year for both the UK and US,there’s the expansion coming,a mp spin off,a mmo,horizon tv show,a vr title that just released and horizon 3. If the series wasn’t performing it wouldn’t be getting all that investment from Sony. It’s a hit series that reviews extremely well and sells extremely well so like I said no reason to feel sorry for the horizon series
@Gamer83 how do you come to that conclusion about horizon when it was in the top ten best selling games of the year for both the UK and US,was nominated at all the big award shows,has an expansion coming,a just released vr title and three other projects in the works.
@Total_Weirdo that isn’t to hide loading it’s been debunked by numerous developers and it sucks that misinformation got started by whoever on the internet and now it’s keeps getting parroted
@Would_you_kindly Nah. No matter what facts are revealed, he can always twist them somehow to fit his narrative.
@NEStalgia Were you the one who put delayed into my head or was that @Grumblevolcano ? Either way it's starting to feel delayed. Or something even more insidious than telling people who bought a $60 PS4 game they can't buy the DLC a year later b/c it won't run on their machine. 😝
@dark_knightmare2 "expansions don’t get hyped like brand new games"
May I introduce you to a little company called Gamefreak and a little game series called Pokemon. 😂 They'll be talking about the S/V DLC constantly for the rest of the year.🤷♂️
https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/updates-from-the-pokemon-day-2023-pokemon-presents
@rjejr It wasn't me, I was the one suggesting they'd start the major promotion about a month before launch. Sharing the promo cycle with TotK is going to be really rough though. Nintendo's presence at PAX East pretty much confirms the massive TotK info blowout will happen before March 23rd.
@Grumblevolcano Thanks. I do recall you saying that now. And I actually just said a few days ago (may have been a week) that if HFW:BS did get delayed a bit, say a month, it would release the same time as TotK, and that would really bury it in the gaming news cycle. 😝 If I was GG and had to delay the game a month I'd just delay it 2 months at this point, I'm not rleasing it same time as TotK.🤷♂️
You're probably right though, usually are, and they're just waiting. I actually thought this morning for a certain TV show to end next week before they announce. If you're on this site at all you can probably guess which show. 😉
I know, I know, nobody holds game news for a TV show, but I think in this case they might. I think Nintendo isn't giving us any more TotK or Pikmin 4 game news until after their movie Direct on Thursday. Who gives a weeks notice to announce a movie trailer we've already seen 2 or 3 trailers for?😂
@rjejr come on that’s Pokemon lol and one example doesn’t disprove my point
@dark_knightmare2 "and one example doesn’t disprove my point"
It does if your point was absolute. This reads absolute to me:
"it’s an expansion and like you said it’s five weeks away expansions don’t get hyped like brand new games."
Destiny 2 Lightfall, an expansion, has a TON of hype. When Silksong finally gets a release date in the next 30-50 years that will get a ton of hype as well.
Before I go any further how many examples do I need to disprove your absolute point about expansions not getting hyped? I can keep going, I just want to know if theirs ever an endpoint to "those are the exceptions,. not the rules". 😉
Witcher 3 DLC had a lot of hype. Wait until we get closer to the Elden Ring expansion in another year. Spiderman 2 will probably have DLC, first game did.
I will give you the Pokemon LOL though, that was funny. 😂
@rjejr That was me who said delay. I still think it's possible it could become stand-alone DLC rather than a regular DLC. Plenty of history of Sony doing that for ambitious DLC,s and especially with the whole "doesn't run on PS4 copies of the game because it's a totally new game but not sold as a totally new game even though it's not related to the existing game at all" mess, I think life would be cleaner for everyone if they made it bigger, raised the price, and sold it as a separate game for PS5. "A new mid-priced smaller full Horizon game for PS5 as stand alone DLC" sounds a lot better than "DLC a third of the owners of the game can't buy until buying new hardware and upgrading their game"
Did you mean the Spiderman 2 DLC they sold as DLC or the Spiderman DLC they sold as a new PS5 showcase game and pretended it wasn't DLC? Like they SHOULD be doing with Burning Shores
@rjejr I wasn’t making an absolute statement like that just saying the majority of time expansions don’t get hyped like that. When Burning Shores got announced there was hype and once reviews come out there will be hype again but there’s not going to be articles or anything like that especially since there hasn’t been any updates since it’s announcement.
Its simple.
Sony does not market their games as heavily as before.
And why?
Again, simple. The ABK Deal. They want to look smaller and less competitive so the deal crashlands.
Marketing will pick up strongly once the Deal is done and there is nothing to hide for anymore.
I love how people on this site write hour long essays but cant put 1 and 1 together.
@NEStalgia I meant the upcoming Spiderman 2 game that will have DLC that will be promoted more than the base game b/c everyone will buy the base game, so no reason to advertise that, but you then need to get people to buy the DLC for a game they already finished a year earlier earlier. Like Burning Shores.
Really, your idea makes more sense. The separate game DLC sold as a new game like Miles Morales and Left Behind and the Uncharted 4 DLC who's name I forget idea, not the delayed DLC idea, though that makes sense too. $40 for a Burning Shores disc where they really impress upon us why it couldn't run on PS4. $30 digital. $25 if you have PS+, $20 if you have PS++, included with PS+++. 😂
@dark_knightmare2 "since there hasn’t been any updates since it’s announcement."
That's exactly my point. 😁
I don't expect Pushsquare to write article when there is nothing to write about. It's the lack of news I find is the problem.
Did you know that HZD The Frozen Wilds was announced at E3 for a November release, and then in August, 4 months before it was released, you could pre-order it on the PS4 and even get a pre-order bonus? Four months. 🤷♂️
Announced at E3 in June
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/06/e3_2017_horizon_zero_dawn_gets_its_first_expansion_later_this_year
Pre-orders open in August w/ free avatar for Nov release
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/08/travel_to_horizon_zero_dawns_frozen_wilds_on_7th_november
@rjejr Yeah, I really can't imagine them NOT making it a stand-alone. They've done it plenty of times before, don't have a deep release calendar this year otherwise, and the whole PS4/PS5 upgrade situation for it makes a big mess of an otherwise typical DLC release. It's a positive spin solution out of an awkward hole, and also allows the scope of the content to be a bit bigger. Though that's reason to believe Jim wouldn't do it.
@NEStalgia "Though that's reason to believe Jim wouldn't do it."
That's always my thinking w/ Nintendo, they won't do it b/c it makes too much sense. 😂 If they name their next gen, or gen refresh, console "New Switch" I'd going to start calling them "New Nintendo" all the time. 🤷♂️
Oh, and I looked up U4LC as a standalone game and it's called "The Lost Legacy" so now I know when HFW:BS Standalone releases and this conversation continues. It's supposed to release in like 6 weeks, they have to announce SOMETHING sooner or later. 1 more episode of TLoU left so maybe next Tuesday. 😉
Edit: That face emoji in U4 DLC isn't supposed to be there. 😝
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