Black Friday Fever
01/Dec/2015
• Black Friday means that week 48, 2015 entertainment software is up +60% units over week 47, 2015 and +32% by revenue. These are higher increases than last year over the same 2 weeks, but actual software units and revenue on week 48, 2015 vs week 48, 2014 are lower this year (-9% units / -10% revenue). Not so for consoles themselves, with more sold in week 48, 2015 than the equivalent week last year (+8%). From the total number of consoles sold in week 48, 2014, PS4/Xbox One accounted for 75%. But this week 48, 2015 that has risen to 86%. This also helps to explain why PS4 and Xbox One software units in week 48, 2015 are higher than any other week and they take around 74% of all entertainment software units – this time last year these 2 formats took only 46% as PS3/360 still commanded over 30% of units. Week 48, 2015 is one of only 9 weeks so far with over 70% PS4 & Xbox One combined share of total entertainment software units. Black Friday has a huge effect on the All Formats Chart this week, propelling EA’s ‘FIFA 16’ up 3 places and back to the top after a 6 week break from the No1 spot, thanks to a wide range of hard and soft bundles (+254%). Activision’s ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops III’ remains at No2 with sales up 47% over last week for similar reasons to FIFA above. Last week’s No1, EA’s ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ drops to No3 but sales are only down -52% (rather than a more typical -70% over week 1 for a major release). Bethesda’s third week on chart for ‘Fallout 4’ sees the title dropping 1 place to No4, but sales climb +8%. There are no new releases in the Top 40, but the chart is littered with titles that have re-entered or risen impressively from Black Friday hardware bundles or simply from Black Friday software discounting, some of which are as follows: Climbing 19 places to No5 is Sony’s PS4 ‘Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection’ (+999%), Rockstar/Take 2’s ‘GTA V’ rises 6 places at No6 (+385%), No8 and up 3 places is ‘Halo 5’ (+195%), No10 and up 10 places is ‘Forza 6’ (+381%), No12 and up 7 places is ‘Disney Infinity 3’ (+281%), No15 and up 19 places is ‘LEGO Marvel Superheroes’ (+541%). Big re-entries are all previous chart toppers, such as ‘The Last of Us: Remastered’ at No21, ‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ at No23, ‘Until Dawn’ at No24 and ‘The Witcher III’ at No28.