The European Top 20 didn’t welcome any new entries last week, but Black Friday week saw a boost in sales nonetheless thanks in no small part to Sony, which was seemingly the MVP of Black Friday, hoovering up 62 percent of all console sales in the UK over the week.
The data – supplied by NielsenIQ and GSD, and published by The Game Business – showed that console sales were much stronger this holiday period, with revenue up 14 per cent, and unit sales up 7 percent.
And while Nintendo Switch 2 took a sizeable 23 percent chunk of all hardware sales, it was the PS5 Pro that had its best week outside of launch. Xbox Series S and X accounted for just 10 percent of all console sales, possibly because Xbox consoles were discounted by around 8 percent on the typical price, but PS5 Slim consoles were down 21-34 percent depending upon the model.
Accessory sales, however, were down 17 percent when compared to the same period last year, as did joypad and headset sales, which tumbled by 27 and 28 percent, respectively.
And while both the Meta Quest 3 and the PS5 VR headsets enjoyed their best weeks of the year, overall, VR headset sales dropped by around 7 percent, too.
Yesterday, we reported that former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida suggested that Japanese studios “can’t replicate” the speed at which games are produced in China, suggesting Chinese studios can hire more people “who can work long hours”.
“Back when I talked to representatives of miHoYo, we discussed how it would be quite difficult for Japanese developers to make games in the same way miHoYo does. Not to mention the legal problems that would come with it,” Yoshida said.