Both retailers gain share of physical entertainment sales, but overall market declines.
The latest data on the physical entertainment market from Kantar Worldpanel (for the 12 weeks to July 1) has shown positive news for HMV and GAME.
Both retailers have gained share of physical entertainment sales, despite the overall market declining by 11% compared to this time last year.
HMV and GAME also benefited from a return to growth for ‘mint’ games, supported by the quarter’s biggest release, God of War (pictured).
“Mint game sales rose by 0.3% year on year, bolstered by the huge success of God of War,” said Giulia Barresi, analyst at Kantar Worldpanel. “The title was bought by more than double the number of people who purchased Mario Kart 8 – the biggest selling game this time last year – holding up a category that would otherwise have experienced declining sales of 13%.
“GAME did particularly well, accounting for 40.6% of all spend on God of War in its first three months on sale, helping the retailer to gain market share on this time last year.”
Elsewhere in gaming, the Nintendo Switch claimed 22% of spend in new generation console software. This is an all-time high coming at the expense of rival Xbox software systems which secured 20.9% of the market this quarter. The PS4 and PS4 Pro remain in pole position, capturing 57.1% of all new generation software sales.
Meanwhile, music buyers on average spent almost £4 more at HMV than the same period last year, helping the retailer to increase its share of physical music sales by 3 percentage points to 22.8%.
However, a drop in impulse buying played a large role in an overall decline in physical music sales of 5.8%.
Giulia explained: “Many retailers are reducing their floorspace and this can mean shoppers are given fewer opportunities to make spur of the moment purchases, such as at the till.
“This trend is the same across physical music and video, with declining impulse purchases amounting to a fall in category sales of £7 million and £16 million respectively compared with last year.”
Despite fewer people buying video overall, HMV managed to increase its share of physical sales by 1.1%.
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