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[Gi biz] UK July monthly results - PS5 #1 again, Switch #2, Xbox Series #3

Thiago

Thiago

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Oct 27, 2017
5,671




In total, 146,000 consoles were sold in the four weeks ending July 31st, which is a drop of 21% over the previous four-week period (GfK data). PS5 sold roughly the same number of units as it did the month before and was the best-selling console of July. Nintendo Switch had a slightly weaker month, while stock shortages meant that Xbox Series X/S suffered a bigger drop and remains in third place. Overall, hardware sales for the first seven months of 2021 are 32% up over the year before.
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In terms of accessories, 578,974 controllers, gaming headsets, cases and other peripherals were sold during July, which is down 21% over the month before and 18.6% compared with July last year (GfK data).

The best-selling accessories are one again the DualSense Wireless Controller White and Black (No.1 and No.2 respectively). The closest challenger is the new Skyward Sword special edition Joy-Cons for Nintendo Switch, which debuts at No.3 in the charts.
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In terms of software, 2.09 million digital and physical games were sold in the UK during July (GSD data, see below for participating publishers). That is a drop of 17.2% year-on-year. 770,000 physical games were sold (down 16.4%), and 1.32 million digital games were downloaded (down 17.6%). Digital games data comes direct from most major publishers, although Nintendo is a notable absentee.
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There were two big games released in July -- F1 2021 by EA/Codemasters, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD from Nintendo. Zelda was the best-selling boxed retail game, while F1 2021 was the best-seller with digital and physical combined (Zelda's digital sales are not counted in these charts). However, neither game could offset the success enjoyed by PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima, which was released in July 2020 to impressive sales.

Overall, it was a strong month for EA, which had the top two best-selling games (F1 2021 and FIFA 21). EA was the biggest publisher of July, followed by Nintendo (Zelda) and Sega (Olympics).
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The biggest console for software sales remains PS4 (35% market share), followed by Nintendo Switch (21.5%).
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PositionTitle
1F1 2021
2FIFA 21 (EA)
3The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD* (Nintendo)
4Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
5Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Activision)
6Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
7The Crew 2 (Ubisoft)
8Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (Capcom)
9Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Sony)
10NBA 2K21 (2K Games)
11Mario Kart 8: Deluxe* (Nintendo)
12Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Sony)
13Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game (Sega)
14Minecraft (Mojang)
15Minecraft: Switch Edition* (Nintendo/Mojang) (Nintendo) *
16Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)
17Animal Crossing: New Horizons* (Nintendo)
18Battlefield 5 (EA)
19Efootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2021: Season Update (Konami)
20It Takes Two (EA)
 
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Prine

Prine

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Oct 25, 2017
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Man, when will Series X availability improve? Was offered PS5 twice this month by my friends, i assume channels are seeing a steady flow there at least.
 
Kouriozan

Kouriozan

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Oct 25, 2017
21,107
Seems like Sony is sending a lot of PS5 there, I saw an Amazon listing last week that survived more than 15 minutes.
I wish it was like that in France as well, haha.
 

Patrese86

Member
Jun 6, 2021
883
Sounds about right. Did manage to get a series x but was alot harder to come by, much more stock alerts for PS5, even the digital one seemed to come in alot in early August. Think we will see much bigger numbers for PS5 in August numbers.
 
Spirited

Spirited

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Oct 25, 2017
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Wonder when MS will start getting the stock for the series x out. It's really weird how easy it is to find series s but series x has been sold out constantly in even countries that xbox is a tiny minority in like Sweden.
 
OldBritBloke

OldBritBloke

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Oct 28, 2017
1,237
HStallion said:
I wonder if the Series S was a good idea now. Seems people want the best possible option even if more expensive.
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With my PS5 now on my living room 4K screen I might eventually pick up a Series S to go on the 1080 screen in my bedroom. The Xbox 1S All Digital that I currently have up there I was able to pick up new for £99 in a Christmas sale, so perhaps I'll upgrade it when the Series S also gets really cheap.
 
ArmGunar

ArmGunar

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Oct 30, 2017
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Kouriozan said:
Seems like Sony is sending a lot of PS5 there, I saw an Amazon listing last week that survived more than 15 minutes.
I wish it was like that in France as well, haha.
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Yeah in France it's super hard to get one, stock online disappeared in 1-2 minutes and in retail stores, you have to be lucky even if you ask directly to an employee
 
Megabreath

Megabreath

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Oct 25, 2018
2,663
I wonder if having two consoles is hurting the ability to produce and move Series X's? The S has been readily available since launch in the UK, the demand doesn't seem to be there for it.
 
Doctor_Thomas

Doctor_Thomas

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Oct 27, 2017
9,651
litebrite said:
It is entirely too early in the generation to assess whether it was a good idea or not.
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I can tell you right now, it's not. It immediately split manufacturing capacity for the XBox Series consoles.

PS5 has two SKUs, sure, but it's a disc drive, not a different spec.

The fact it's been readily available, while the other three new consoles are not, reflects the public reception to it.
 
Ambient

Ambient

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Dec 23, 2017
7,077
I love my Series S but I wonder if people who want a Series X are tired of waiting for a powerful next gen machine and get a PS5 if they see it's available.
 
MeltedDreams

MeltedDreams

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Oct 27, 2017
7,946
HStallion said:
I wonder if the Series S was a good idea now. Seems people want the best possible option even if more expensive.
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Maybe MS thought demand for S will be much higher. Lots of these consoles in EU, while X is harder to find than PS5 right now.
They better ramp up the production before Halo and Forza comes out.
 
litebrite

litebrite

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,832
Doctor_Thomas said:
I can tell you right now, it's not. It immediately split manufacturing capacity for the XBox Series consoles.

PS5 has two SKUs, sure, but it's a disc drive, not a different spec.

The fact it's been readily available, while the other three new consoles are not, reflects the public reception to it.
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Are we talking in the global market as a whole, or within the context of the UK market?
 
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Strings

Strings

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Oct 27, 2017
31,413
I'm not sure I've seen the S ever out of stock / it's been $70 off a couple of times in Australia (think we're a similar market to the UK?).
 
Webbo

Webbo

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Nov 27, 2017
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Series X stock seems to have been pretty much none existent for the past 1-2 months.

I'm hoping to pick one up by the time Forza and Halo arrive.
 
Shairi

Shairi

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Aug 27, 2018
8,564
litebrite said:
It is entirely too early in the generation to assess whether it was a good idea or not.
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Wasn't the idea behind Series S to move people faster to next gen? People who usually wait for price drops were the target audience, so they would be there day one.

I think we can already judge that it didn't work that way.

Xbox Series X DE would have been a way better cheap option for early adopters.
 
CarterTax

CarterTax

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Oct 25, 2017
709
I don't think the Series S was a bad idea, but I do think Microsoft clearly overestimated demand for a console with lower specs, less storage, and no disc drive at launch. This console could sell better later but they should have been much more conservative at launch and primarily produced Series X consoles, similar to Sony with producing less Digital Consoles than Disc Consoles. Granted, Sony's conservatism was due to how much they were/are losing on the DE but the point still stands.
 
Lashley

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Oct 25, 2017
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Yeah, personally I wish the Series S was just a Series X without a disc drive.
 

i like big butts

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,970
HStallion said:
I wonder if the Series S was a good idea now. Seems people want the best possible option even if more expensive.
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It's a product that in its current iteration has limited appeal. If it had the same storage space as the Series X, then sure I can see it moving units.

People speak about the awesome price but it honestly isn't a cheap device at $500 AUD. And this is a device that is known to be inferior in power, has no disk drive and has half the storage space. The Series X is only $250 AUD more. The Series S is basically the product that serves to make the Series X (and PS5 Digital Edition) look like way better value products. There's no way I'm getting the Series S when Call of Duty eats storage space like I eat ass AND it's the less powerful/flexible product.

Consumers after a certain price point become way less sensitive to pricing. It's really an overrated theory that price differences are all equal. Especially when the cheaper but honestly still very expensive product is the red headed stepchild in so many obvious ways.
 
Kromeo

Kromeo

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Oct 27, 2017
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I wonder if Microsoft just misjudged how demand would be split between the S and the X
 
IIFloodyII

IIFloodyII

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Oct 26, 2017
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S will be interesting to watch, I think the inevitable Slims will kill it, before it really has a chance to be the go to option for the more casual buyers in a couple years, but a low end day 1 console will probably still be an interesting experiment.
 
Garulon

Garulon

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Jul 22, 2020
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Strings said:
I'm not sure I've seen the S ever out of stock / it's been $70 off a couple of times in Australia (think we're a similar market to the UK?).
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It was out of stock when I tried to get one and then back in stock a few days latter so it happens.

I don't think the existence of the XBox series S affects the production of the Xbox Series X at all, I think people are just shitty that there's a standard non-premium console at launch at a fucking amazing price
 
litebrite

litebrite

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,832
Shairi said:
Wasn't the idea behind Series S to move people faster to next gen? People who usually wait for price drops were the target audience, so they would be there day one.

I think we can already judge that it didn't work that way.

Xbox Series X DE would have been a way better cheap option for early adopters.
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Like I said, I just think it's way too early in the generation to assess whether it was a good idea or not. I would rather wait and see till we're closer to the end of the generation and view the overall data in the global market as a whole, before coming to any conclusion. Not to mention see how late next-gen games perform on the system.
 

i like big butts

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,970
Garulon said:
It was out of stock when I tried to get one and then back in stock a few days latter so it happens.

I don't think the existence of the XBox series S affects the production of the Xbox Series X at all, I think people are just shitty that there's a standard non-premium console at launch at a fucking amazing price
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Of course it does. The semi-conductor shortage means APU production of the Series S impacts production of the Series X. This isn't like the PS5 where there's only one APU to choose from.

I can walk into Northland JB Hi Fi and pick up the Series S any time. You're never going to find the Series X, they don't even advertise it in the store because the answer is going to be "no you can't get it".
 

Deleted member 81269

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litebrite said:
Like I said, I just think it's way too early in the generation to assess whether it was a good idea or not. I would rather wait and see till we're closer to the end of the generation and view the overall data in the global market as a whole, before coming to any conclusion. Not to mention see how late next-gen games perform on the system.
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Microsoft don't even give console sale numbers though.
 
HStallion

HStallion

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Oct 25, 2017
62,262
litebrite said:
Like I said, I just think it's way too early in the generation to assess whether it was a good idea or not. I would rather wait and see till we're closer to the end of the generation and view the overall data in the global market as a whole, before coming to any conclusion.
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The end of the generation? Unless things make a big change through the holidays I think we'll have a good idea of whether the Series S was a worthwhile endeavor. I doubt it suddenly starts selling like hotcakes in year 3 when we're getting pro upgrades or slim models of the X.
 
Thorrgal

Thorrgal

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Oct 26, 2017
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HStallion said:
I wonder if the Series S was a good idea now. Seems people want the best possible option even if more expensive.
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There was a lot of discussion on the topic on the next-gen thread back in the day, and I'm sure there was a lot of discussion inside MS as well, and looks like those who thought it was a horrible idea to release a budget option at launch were right, because early adopters don't want it.

Waste of time and resources, should have been released further into the gen or just scrapped altogether.
 
plow

plow

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Oct 28, 2017
4,650
The Series is a fine second console to have near a PS5.

As soon as the PS5 is out there and many people own it, they wil look at the Series S as their second console. This can take a few years.
 

Dis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,946
Yeah I traded in an xbox one for a series s, I actually like the console compared to the xbox one, the ui isn't ridiculously slow and clunky, it's really quiet and the whole loading fast thing of these new consoles is one of those things where now I'm used to it when I go back to my ps4 it drives me insane how long it can take some stuff to load haha.

But I'll happily admit that it is far from perfect and I honestly would have rather had the option of a series x digital instead of the s being a thing, hell I'd rather have the option of a disc drive s than what it currently is but that's because xbox one games used market are insanely cheap compared to new and ps4 versions prices a lot of the time. If it wasn't for that deal at game I would have just waited for a series x.

As others have said it doesn't help that storage is awful in terms of capacity. I have to often move games to an external or redownload stuff and that's a pain even with gigabit Internet and no data caps in the UK.

The fact that expanded storage costs almost as much as the console itself brand new and not much less than that used is a huge issue for me. I refuse to buy something at that price compared to the console and I hate the Microsoft didn't just use off the shelf parts like Sony have allowed.

Hell they could have at last made an enclosure that you can sell for cheap that you can put off the shelf drives in so people can get more storage for less.
 
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