Video games outsell DVD, Blu-ray at retail globally

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 26th 2009 10:00AM

Media Control GfK International states that video game retail sales overtook DVD and Blu-ray for the first time last year. Video game sales grew 20%, reaching $32 billion globally, while DVD and Blu-ray increased 6% to $29 billion. GfK notes the popularity of the Wii has been a driving force for game sales -- although some say the Wii wasn't trying hard enough.

GFK predicts software sales will reach $36 billion this year, an increase of 12%. Meanwhile, it expects a 4% decline in the home video market to around $27 billion (Blu-ray is forecast to double to $2.9 billion). It's not all unicorns and rainbows, though, as GfK's original projection for game sales was higher -- it failed to meet expectations due to the economic crisis.

[Via GI.biz]

Source

Tags: gfk, global, media-control-gfk-international, sales, worldwide-sales

Reader Comments (43)

inb4 "That's because Blu-Ray sells -3 million copies a day."!

what? are you on drugs?

No, I just realize that because that the post mentions Blu-Ray, there will be a full frontal assault on it and how useless it apparently is.

I dunno if that many people will attack Blu-ray on here.......the post on Engadget tho could have got a little heated......

i f'd blu-ray's mom.

I wouldn't say BluRay is useless, but the past year has been quite "big" in terms of games and gaming.

I say its because games take longer to download than movies and music. You all know it's true!

Blu Ray's mom is so fat, Jabba the Hut said DAMN!

Sorry, I was watching Robot Chicken...

Blu-Ray will never grow enough to be what DVD is. Yup, I said it.

Marty, one day the Blu-Ray drives will be as cheap to buy as the DVDs. People will start buying them even if they don't get what Blu-Ray is, just because of the 'more features for the same price? I'll take a dozen' way of thinking. Retailers will start advertising them more, because 'quality for less' is a great catchphrase and... well... That's about it. It may not become as widespread as DVD, but it'll still sell plenty.

@ Marty - I'm sure you did say that, just like many said 8-track would never overtake Vinyl, that cassettes would never overtake 8-tracks, and that DVDs were just pretty plastic. I'm not saying it's going to happen anytime soon, but having lived through 3 major format changes in my life, I wouldn't imagine it would take too long.

I wonder if iTunes, Amazon Streaming, XBLA, PSN and the like had anything to do with Movies not selling as much on DVD/Blu-ray......SOME people would just must rather have the easy access and could care les about the extras on a DVD or Blu-ray.....me myself I'd rather buy the hard copy of the media and then just copy it to my server if need be....

Yeah, but then again we don't factor in things like Steam either.

That picture is made of win.

I totally agree...the pic made the post way better :D
as for blu ray, I've been intrigued for a while but will hold off, I have HD DVD which looks great, and it's cheap to picku up now that everyone is eliminating the inventory...but I think DVD looks look rather well and even streaming through my 360 or pcs will do just fine for now...I will jump on the bandwagon though once most blu ray movies hit the $15 range.

Whoa, that's pretty beastly. Though if you consider games go at $60 a pop as opposed to movies that are $20 each then it's almost assured games will win out. Not to mention this entails all games no? That's like...some 8 or 9 different platforms as opposed to 2 (blue ray/DVD). The comparison should include the other movie alternatives to be fair, such as ticket sales and downloads.

I'm pretty sure more people have a dvd player then a gaming system.

Not if you count PC's into the mix, people often forget those play video games too. That's why I said there's like 8 or 9 platforms that could be accounted for. Looking at cell phone gaming and other gaming oddities on the market.

Ahh.. but they are asking the wrong question if they want to know what medium people doing more for entertainment... the real question would be: Do games outsell recordable DVD media? :P

So they didn't sell more games than DVD's (that's what I thought from the headline) they just made more money.

No $#!+, games cost 2-3 times more than a dvd.
This is like those announcements that Gamestop made more money than Scrooge McDuck: of course they did, they’re an ever-present ripoff.

I don't think you've seen Scrooge Mcduck's vault lately.

It's Nintendo's vault now...

Sweep the legs!!

"... i want him out of commission, Mean 80's Villan!"

You're the best around, nothing's gonna ever keep you down.

I wonder what the numbers would look like if we mixed in downloadable game and video content?

Both DVDs and BluRay are absurdly overpriced at retail, in my opinion. $5 has become my purchasing limit on any movie which I'll likely only watch once or twice.

Video games, on the other hand, can provide anywhere's between 10-50 hours of enjoyment.

That's what it is right there. You get 10 hours minimum in a game all in HD for $50. With DVD you get 1.5 to 2 hours standard def for $15-20 or with Blu-ray you get 1.5 - 2 hours HD for $25-30. People have figured out that it's just not worth that much for

If you're only going to watch it once, why are you buying it?

You have obviously never purchased porn before....well over the 10-50 hours of enjoyment. Although who purchases that shit anymore?

10-15 hours? That would be a joke. If I spend $50-60 on a game it better be a 50 hour RPG or have 10 hour single player and have 100 hours of online fun to play.

I buy games and movies for different reasons. I don't always want to spend 10-50 hours 'enjoying' the same thing. I don't always want to 'play' the stories I'm being told. I like gaming, but I also like passively being told a story, like when I read and watch movies.

Honestly, I get a lot more enjoyment out of a relatively 'short' game like 'Uncharted', which packed a lot of quality gameplay in without a lot of redundancy, and keep me from wasting more than an evening or three. I don't want 50 hours of gameplay, unless maybe we're talkin' multiplayer over the course of several months.

Sometimes young whippersnappers confuse 'quantity' with 'good'. But if you want to order the 'value' bucket of popcorn when you only need a few handfuls, go right ahead.

I'm not surprised, why watch the protagonist when you can be the protagonist.

+1 jonathan

Damn you comments system :( making me feel so noob the way you do!

kicking me when I'm down, farting in my general direction.

What the deuce? that was a reply too... this too.

I Quit!

its not that fucking hard asshole.

lol dont quit tho... winners never quit, we just redefine the parameters.

Cinemas count too, and I'm fairly sure more films are rented than games.

So what, blu-ray was only like 1.5, 1.4 billon of the total dvd/blu-ray sales??

.................

Wow.. What a dent to DVD.

I'm sure video game sales revenues are higher. But those revenues are counting plastic guitars as if they were games (because RB/GHWT are $200 for a "game") and the Wii Play bundle (a controller sold as a game) probably accounts for 5x more revenue than RB+GHWT together.

Well all my games & movies are Blu-rays now anyway so they got me!

I bet that if HD-DVD sales have been included, we'd see a much different chart.

(/JK)

Slightly misleading, because games outdid retail movies in terms of revenue doesn't mean that movies, in terms of units, still paint the big picture of how far games have to go

for instance: The Dark Knight pushed more units in it's first week of availability on home video than Wii Fit pushed all year

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Video games outsell DVD, Blu-ray at retail globally

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Posted: Jan 26th 2009 10:04AM Dark Archon PSN Archonik XBL Dar said

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