Amazon remains largest retailer; Beauty and the Beast among top video performers.
Latest data from Kantar Worldpanel has shown that the physical entertainment sector is back in growth for the first time since August 2014 – driven by a strong gaming category.
The physical entertainment market was up 2.2% year on year, driven by games market sales growing 26.0%. This offset declines of 5.4% and 4.8% in music and video respectively.
This figure marks the strongest overall growth that physical entertainment has seen in over three years.
Olivia Moore, analyst at Kantar Worldpanel, commented: “It’s been a great quarter for games – a real bright spot in the physical market’s struggle against the rise of digital. Helped by the release of much-anticipated title Destiny, mint games – as opposed to second hand – have led the charge.
“The market will now be looking to build on its success in the run up to Christmas, and consoles will have a vital part to play. Early signs are promising, with 850,000 consumers looking to pick up either the Nintendo Switch or Xbox One X in the run up to the festive season. Argos and Amazon benefited most from the gaming revival, continuing to nip at the heels of market leader GAME.”
Amazon remains the largest retailer for physical entertainment, growing share by 0.3 percentage points year on year to hold 20.8% of the market. Meanwhile HMV made the biggest gains: increasing market share by 2.3 percentage points to stand at 18.1%.
Beauty and the Beast, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Logan were the top video performers of the quarter, while NOW 97 dominated in music.
Olivia continued: “Blu-ray continues to outperform DVD as consumers become more willing to spend more for higher quality content, although its share of the market remains smaller. Blu-ray saw 15,000 new shoppers during the latest quarter, with film fans also purchasing the format more frequently on average.
“In further good news for the video category, digital purchasing nudged the total transactional market – as opposed to streaming or subscription – into 4% growth, offsetting continuing declines in physical transactional sales. This is the best performance we’ve seen for several years.”
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest by clicking here. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter.
