Game and HMV report ‘impressive’ sales growth

Entertainment retailers HMV and Game have reported an increase in shares of physical entertainment sales for the 3 months to 1 July, despite the overall market declining by 11%.

The latest data on the physical entertainment market from Kantar Worldpanel shows a return to growth for mint games, supported by the release of God of War.

The Nintendo Switch also claimed 22% of spend in new generation console software.  According to the group the figure is an all-time high coming at the expense of rival Xbox software systems, which secured 20.9% of the market in the quarter.

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 three percentage points to 22.8%.

Driving this growth were big new releases including Resistance Is Futile by the Manic Street Preachers, The Greatest Showman film soundtrack and Tranquillity Based Hotel + Casino by the Arctic Monkeys. In contrast, Amazon customers spent nearly £1 less on music and added fewer titles to their basket when visiting the site, compared with last year.

Giulia Barresi, analyst at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “Mint game sales rose by 0.3% year on year, bolstered by the huge success of God of War. 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%.”