Revealed: The 100 best-selling UK boxed games of 2017 As always, Call of Duty and FIFA dominate. But there are a few surprises, too

Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B Friday 12th January 2018 Share this article Share

Companies in this article GfK UKIE

Last year, sales of boxed games in the UK stopped declining.

Although the number of physical games sold (23.8m) was 0.4% down over 2016, the revenue figure rose 2.1% to £792m.

This was helped by a stronger Christmas period, with boxed game sales across November and December rising over 5% compared with the year before - driven by a stronger performance of Call of Duty.

The result has helped the games retail marketplace, with UK retailer GAME reporting a more than 5% growth in sales at the end of last year (although that was also boosted by improved console sales).

Now, courtesy of GfK and UKIE, we can reveal the 100 best-selling boxed games that were sold during 2017, and the most successful boxed video game publishers, too.

EA Market Share Slips As Activision Grows

EA accounted for more than 22% of all boxed games sold in 2016, but that fell to 17% in 2017. That was partially due to falling sales of the boxed version of FIFA, but also the under-performance of its key shooter title - Star Wars: Battlefront II (which sold below 2016's Battlefield 1).

Activision clawed back market share year-on-year (up 3.5%), primarily due to strong sales of Call of Duty: WWII (significantly up compared with 2016's Infinite Warfare), but also due to the No.6 game of 2017 - Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy.

Considering the strong success of Switch, it's not surprising to see Nintendo rise from No.4 to No.3 in the publisher rankings (market share up over 3% year-on-year), driven by the success of Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. However, none of these games managed to break into The Top Ten. 1-2 Switch and Splatoon 2 also made the Top 50.

The Top Five publishers accounted for more than 60% of the entire boxed games market, as the market continues to consolidate around the big titles and the major publishers.

Some of the biggest movers in the boxed charts include Capcom - up 8 places thanks to the success of Resident Evil VII (no.19 for the year). Meanwhile, indie boxed publishers Sold Out, Team17 and Maximum Games leapt into the Top 20 publishers in terms of units and value.

Top 20 UK Games Publishers - Units

Last Year This Year Company Name Software Market share (Units) 1 1 Electronic Arts 17% 2 2 Activision Blizzard 15.7% 4 3 Nintendo 11.3% 3 4 Ubisoft 9.8% 6 5 Sony 7.9% 7 6 Warner Bros 6.9% 5 7 Take-Two 6.1% 9 8 Bethesda 5.1% 8 9 Microsoft 4.9% 10 10 Square Enix Europe 1.9% 19 11 Capcom 1.8% 12 12 505 Games 1.4% 11 13 Bandai Namco 1.4% 15 14 Codemasters 1.2% 16 15 Sega 1.2% 13 16 Tell-Tale 0.7% 24 17 Team17 0.6% 32 18 Sold Out 0.6% 14 19 Konami 0.5% 27 20 Maximum Games 0.4%

Top 20 UK Games Publishers - Value

Last Year This Year Company Name Software Market share (Value) 1 1 Electronic Arts 22.2% 2 2 Activision Blizzard 18.2% 5 3 Nintendo 12.5% 3 4 Ubisoft 9.7% 6 5 Sony 6.9% 8 6 Warner Bros 5.6% 4 7 Take-Two 5.1% 9 8 Microsoft 3.8% 9 9 Bethesda 3.2% 16 10 Capcom 1.7% 10 11 Square Enix 1.6% 11 12 Bandai Namco 1.4% 12 13 Codemasters 1.3% 18 14 Sega 1% 13 15 505 Games 0.7% 32 16 Sold Out 0.7% 15 17 Konami 0.5% 14 18 TellTale 0.5% 26 19 Team17 0.4% New Entry 20 Studio Wildcard 0.4%

FIFA Dominates again, but Call of Duty comes close

FIFA 18 ended the year as the UK's best-selling game - a fact that will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed UK game sales over the past five years.

However, boxed FIFA sales fell year-on-year. Indeed, Call of Duty sales came closer than it has done in a long time to EA's major sports franchise. Call of Duty: WWII has already sold more copies than 2016's Infinite Warfare. In fact, Call of Duty: WWII was the best-selling Xbox One game ahead of FIFA 18.

In terms of exclusive games in the charts, it was dominated by PS4. Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy is at No.6, Gran Turismo Sport at No.8 and Horizon: Zero Dawn at No.10. Horizon: Zero Dawn is also the best-selling new IP of 2017 (in terms of boxed sales, we're sure PlayerUnknown Battleground's would disagree otherwise). The next biggest exclusive was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at No.11 for Nintendo Switch.

It wasn't a great year for new IP generally. There are 7 new IP in the Top 50 boxed charts, and only 4 of them were released in 2017.

Remarkably, Grand Theft Auto V continues to sell huge numbers, and was the third best-selling boxed game last year - beating Assassin's Creed: Origins and Star Wars Battlefront II. Crash Bandicoot also beat Destiny 2 to become Activision Blizzard's second biggest boxed game of the year (note: Destiny 2 sold strongly digitally).

THE UK TOP 100 BOXED GAMES 2017 (UKIE/GFK)