The alternative UK console Top Ten
Christopher Dring
Head of Games B2B
Thursday 21st April 2022
This article was originally published as part of the GI Market Report newsletter. To sign-up for free, click here and select 'Retail and Publishing newsletter' to receive it.
Every now and then GfK games boss Dorian Bloch sends over something he knows I wouldn't be able to resist.
If I had his job and a database of the UK sales history for the games industry at my finger tips, I am not sure I'd ever get any work done. In recent months, Bloch has sent over the fastest and best-selling Gran Turismo games of all time, he gave us insight into how big the Metroid series has been in the UK over the past 25 years, and last month revealed the 30 biggest games brands in UK history.
Today it was all about retro consoles and micro consoles released since 2005. Basically, the other games machines that aren't a mainline Nintendo, PlayStation or Xbox machine. For Bloch it was to mark the arrival of the A500 Mini retro console, but there's been a flurry of these alternative machines in recent months, including the Playdate, Steam Deck and Analogue Pocket.
GfK's data only tracks consoles sold via traditional retailers -- so companies such as Argos, GAME, Amazon, Tesco and so on. It doesn't track direct-to-market manufacturers, so a lot of those previously mentioned devices (including the Steam Deck and Playdate) are not factored in here.
For those consoles that are included (over 150 tracked devices), 1.5 million have been sold since 2005. It's not a huge number, but still roughly the install base of the N64. The charts are led by Nintendo's retro machines, and Bloch says that if more stock had been released of these, we can safely assume the overall sales number would be a lot
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