UK Black Friday Console Sales Were 22% Higher in 2021 Compared to Last Year - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 December 2021 / 4,672 Views
It was reported this week the Nintendo Switch had its best week ever in the UK for Black Friday week. The hybrid console easily outsold every other console on the market. The Xbox Series S was in a very distant second place and it alone outsold the PlayStation 5.
GamesIndustry has now posted its report from GfK senior client director Dorian Bloch for Black Friday sales in the UK.
Black Friday week saw a three percent drop in the number of video game items sold - hardware, games, and accessories - compared to last year. However, revenue did increase five percent.
The Nintendo Switch dominated hardware sales as the bundle with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three months of Nintendo Switch Online was a big seller. The bundle sold for an average of £256 and accounted for 54 percent of all Switch consoles sold.
Hardware overall saw 22 percent more consoles sold than last year and 17 percent higher hardware revenue. It is also the 44th best week ever for console sales since records started in 1995.
"Only Switch had an exceptional week, PS5 and Xbox Series did not have many offers and actually PS5 Digital was out of stock and Series X had a major stock drop the week prior," Bloch said. "In 2020, both had massive launch weeks [which were the weeks immediately before Black Friday] and therefore both had very low stock for Black Friday week."
As for software sales, 10 percent fewer games were sold this year compared to 2020, while software revenue dropped eight percent.
"[This is] not a bad result considering last year the two weeks prior to Black Friday saw the launch of Series X and S and PS5, with a marked upturn in overall software sales for Sony and Microsoft formats," said Bloch.
Virtual reality had a big Black Friday due to the discounted price of Oculus Quest 2. GfK only tracks PC and console VR headsets and does not include figures for mobile VR, VR drones and VR camcorder.
"This was thanks to enormous sales on Oculus Quest 2, with the entire PC VR category twice the size of Black Friday 2020 week by revenue," said Bloch. "It brought in close to £12m last week alone. Essentially a £50 egift card discount on the main 128GB SKU, or equivalent offer, was available from major retailers.
"Last week was the biggest week ever for PC VR, beating even the launch week of Oculus Quest 2 back in 2020, which was at the time a huge week and remains the second biggest week on record for PC VR."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
