UK to Overtake Japan as #2 Games Market
The land of PlayStation and Mario is going to be third in the video game market this year.
According to a worldwide market report by MCV, the United Kingdom is set to take the number two spot in the video game market rankings away from Japan in 2009.
In 2008, the United States reigned supreme with a total market value of around USD $21 billion. Japan and the UK came in second and third with values of approx. $6.43 billion and $5.7 billion, respectively. While Japan had the lead in 2008, the game changer lies in market growth. The U.S. saw a 19 percent growth over 2007, and the UK saw an 18 percent jump, Japan's market has stumbled 15 percent. The sharp contrast in growth (or lack thereof), combined with the relatively small margin between the two markets lead many to believe the Land of the Rising Sun will fall the third.
While growth is always good, the market is slowing down considerably. The U.S. market grew 43 percent between 2006 and 2007, a far larger number than between '07 and '08. The three markets combined saw an overall growth of ten percent over 2007.
The report also included the top five selling gaming software titles for 2008. In the U.S., Wii Play, Madden 2009 and Grand Theft Auto IV rounded out the top three with 5.28 million, 5.25 million and 5.22 million units sold, respectively. FIFA 2009 took top honors in the UK, and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd Generation outsold the rest in Japan with 2.5 million.
Take a look at the entire report for yourself here.
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Its not the size of the market that give the UK the edge; but the fact that, we, in the UK, are very overcharged for the games we buy!
Also the market would have been a bit bigger; but i wont buy a game which has DRM. Saved a lot of last year.