Tag Archives: chart-track

GfK Chart-Track’s released lifetime figures for games hardware in the UK, as reported by Edge.

And here they are:

• Wii – 4.9 million (launched December 2006)
• Xbox 360 – 3.2 million (launched December 2005)
• PS3 – 1.9 million (launched March 2007)
• DS – 8.8 million (launched March 2005)
• PSP – 3.2 million (launched September 2005)
• PS2 – 10 million (launched November 2000)

That puts combined PS3, Wii and 360 sales at 10 million. Lots of millions.

More through the link.

Nintendo’s told VG247 that DSi sold 92,000 units in the UK in its opening weekend, not 103,000 as previously reported.

Both figures came from Chart-Track. The UK tracking body just revised its figure to the lower amount.

DSi enjoyed the fourth largest hardware launch in British history last week.

According to this MCV report, the British games software market is to be worth approximately £1.9 billion this year.

The site claims game sales this year are already ahead of those achieved in 2007 of £1.7 billion.

So far the market value has averaged out to £35m a week in 2008.

The calculations are based on weekly data provided by Gfk-ChartTrack/ELSPA.

There’s more through there.

DS Lite has broken the all-time weekly sales record for hardware in the UK, MCV’s reporting.

ELSPA/GFK-ChartTrack figures show that the console broke the record in week ending December 6.

The console’s beaten its own record: it first became the biggest-selling console of all time in the lead-up to Christmas last year.

As ever, no actual figures were released. God only know what’d happen if they were.

According to this MCV report, Chart-Track’s confirmed that 51 percent of all UK Tomb Raider: Underworld sales in Britain last week.

The title entered this week’s GFK-ChartTrack/ELSPA All Formats Top 40 at No.9, outselling the launch of last year’s original Tomb Raider remake (Tomb Raider: Anniversary) by 6,700 units.

Chart-Track’s confirmed that both PS3 and Xbox 360 have achieved 1 million console sales in the UK in the past year.

According to this GI report, as of September 2008, PS3 has reached 1.4 million units, 360 2.3 million and Wii 3.6 million units.

The numbers show considerable growth from 2007 – both PS3 and Xbox 360 have moved 1 million units since the same period last year, when their installed base was 0.4 million and 1.3 million, respectively.

Wii is the real success story, however – the Nintendo machine has sold 2.5 million units in the past 12 months in Britain, up from 1.1 million units in September 2007.

More through there.

GI’s reporting that sales of Xbox 360 hardware rose 32 percent over the weekend of Microsoft’s latest price cut.

“[360] sales are up 32 percent and PlayStation 3 sales are down eight percent,” said Chart-Track’s Chris Poole.

Microsoft’s latest adjustment now puts the Arcade at £129.99, the Premium at £169.99 and the Xbox Elite, complete with 120GB hard-drive, at £229.99.

More through the link.

Following last night’s revelation that GfK has bought a controlling stake in UK sales monitor Chart-Track, VG247 has been told by the British company that no changes are planned to the way UK games charts operate, and that the focus of the new firm post-sale will be on building European tracking services.

“Not in the short-term, no,” said Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch, on the subject of a British chart sea-change thanks to the takeover.

“You won’t really see any difference in the UK charts. It’s business as usual. We’ll carry on doing what we’ve always done. The focus really is more on developing a range of services for our clients on a European level, which is something we’re looking forward to doing with GfK.”

Bloch added: “We have a lot of services that compare favourably. GfK have some strong points service-wise and so do we. And now we need to look at those and see how we can best combine our services for the good of our clients.”

The sale, which has seen GfK take a 55 percent stake in Chart-Track, is effectively immediately.

“It’s happened, and absolutely yes,” said Bloch when asked if he was pleased at the acquisition. “We’ve built up a relationship with GfK over the last 10 years, so the key contacts we have at GfK are like-mined professionals who are dedicated to building accurate and timely research on the entertainment, hardware, software and accessories markets, just like us. We’ve worked with GfK for a long time.

“One of the things that we’ve done for over 10 years is a European software and hardware tracking report, and that’s something we’d like to carry on and improve over time.”

And no, we’re not going to get sale figures like our lucky American and Japanese cousins.

“Anybody who isn’t a member of ELSPA does have to pay to access the data,” said Bloch. “It’s actually the most cost effective and best way of providing this kind of research,” “I guess the answer to your question is no, there is no plan to make sales figures suddenly available on every product simply because the nature of the business model that we have.”

GfK has bought Chart-Track. The charts firm has added a 46 percent stake to an existing nine percent, taking control of the UK outfit.

The effectively means Chart-Track is now no longer the UK authority for British games charts.

“We are delighted to be joining the GfK Group,” said MD of the newly-formed GfK ChartTrack Limited. “We’re confident this will provide us with a solid platform for future growth and we look forward to further developing our range of services. Most importantly, the ability to plug into GfK ’s strong international network will be a terrific benefit to our clients.”

The new company will trade as GfK Chart-Track Limited in future.

Which is great. Can we have some sales figures now, please?

According to this MCV piece, the first six months of 2008 have been the biggest ever. The news comes from Chart-Track, so that means no figures, unfortunately.

“In terms of overall software, including non-games, this is by far the biggest first half of the year ever,” said Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch.

There’s no other info through the link, as Chart-Track doesn’t allow anyone to publish actual numbers. Sorry about that.

GI’s reporting that MGS4 has had a mere 7 percent impact on PS3 sales in the past week, despite a massive increase in hardware moved in Japan.

“There’s not a lot to say about it – it had minimal impact really. Units were up by 7 percent,” said Chart-Track boss Dorian Bloch.

And that’s that. More through the link.

The CVG piece claims that PS3 sales are ahead of 360 numbers by 10 percent in the first 21 weeks of 2008.

The news comes from Chart-Track’s Dorian Bloch who also added that “360 has caught up thanks to the GTA IV effect,” since prior to the game’s release the PS3 was 20 percent ahead this calendar year.

More through the link.

According to this EG report, GTA IV sales have now hit 1.3 million in the UK, 57 percent of which were on Xbox 360.

Sales of Xbox 360 hardware are 18 percent ahead of the PS3 in the UK since the launch of the game, says the site.

The stats come from Chart-Track. More through the link.

According to this GI report, Chart-Track figures show that GTA IV has sold more than 926,000 copies sold in its first five days on sale in the UK.

The British organisation reports that 514,000 copies were sold for 360 and 413,000 copies were sold for PS3 – a split of 55 per cent to 45 per cent.

By comparison, San Andreas, which launched in October 2004, sold 501,000 copies on its first day and 677,000 units during its first week – which consisted only of two days. At the time it was released, the PS2 had an installed base of 6.6 million.

San Andreas still holds the day one and week one record for the individual format, but GTA IV is the new record holder for all formats.

And the winner is… FIFA 08, according to an extensive look at UK sales in the past year from MCV. The top 10′s below, in case you can’t be bothered to wade through the full top 50, an analysis feature or a breakdown by format. There are no sales figures, unfortunately, as Chart-Track only allows deities to read them.

1. FIFA 08 (Electronic Arts)
2. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (Nintendo)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami)
5. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (Nintendo)
6. Halo 3 (Microsoft)
7. The Simpsons Game (Electronic Arts)
8. Wii Play (Nintendo)
9. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft)
10. WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2008 (THQ)

The latest UK all-format chart for the week ending January 26 looks good for EA this morning, with Burnout Paradise sitting pretty on top. Apparently it’s the highest selling racing game debut since Gran Turismo on PSone, but we can’t tell you actual unit sales because Chart-Track will send men in black round to our little houses and brutalise us to death. Here’s the list.

1 Burnout Paradise (EA)
2 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega)
3 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
4 Wii Play (Nintendo)
5 Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (Nintendo)
6 The Simpsons Game (EA)
7 Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft)
8 FIFA 2008 (EA)
9 Ratatouille (THQ)
10 More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (Nintendo)

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2008 ELSPA Ltd