The Wii U Generated Just 2.1 Percent Of UK Games Market Revenue In 2016

... it's not the size of the percent that matters, its what you did with it.

The power of marketing and advertising

Ok which game store has all these heads queuing up to pay £10 more per title, than the rest of the planet!

Thats pretty bad!!

But looking at the top games you can tell we're more of a "casual" gaming country.

I saw list of boring, disastrous, terrible and uninteresting games (Except Pokemon Sun, one of interesting games). Ugh... i'm so relief wasn't born with those pathetic mindset of gaming. In my opinion, playing Fifa , fps, adult games doesn't make me cool or feel like a real gamer. Instead, I feel disgust and idiot to be a gamer like that. Sorry, just my opinion, maybe sounds very harsh.

Nintendo is to the UK what Microsoft is to Japan - worthless.

If Nintendo is smart, Switch will launch in Japan and America in March, and then come to the UK when they show some signs that they might actually buy it. I think waiting 3-4 months, just dangling it over them, hoping US and Japan loves the Switch would spark interest in the UK to buy it. Holding Switch hostage from the UK certainly can't HURT sales anymore.

@eltomo
I don't like soccer at all. The lamest sport ever. Even someone asked me to kick soccer ball, I refuse to kick or get involved into it. It just so idiot for me.
I can't stand with that mainstream mindset like that. It just Super Duper Boring things ever. Sorry for my rants.

Yes this is a fashion thing, it's like needing the jack wills jacket and hunter wellies. Every non gamer needs a copy of Fifa and cod even if they dont play it, then to trade it in for 10p against the new Fifa and cod. If you asked then to name a game they have 100% completed they struggle ask them to tell you about a franchise history they have no clue. Bad times!

This is what I have had to put with in the UK ever since PlayStation 1 started to ruin the gaming market. The Uk game market is represented by 3 game console buyers with no real interest in gaming.

Man, that poor Vita. Despite Nintendo's treatment of the Wii U in the last few months, they've at least not forgotten it as quickly as Sony's unwanted love child the poor handheld.....

Surprised it even managed that pitiful percentage. Take Pokemon, 1 game out of it and they'd plummet right down.

This is the very reason why Nintendo puts their least effort on Europe
America and Japan ftw !

PC is only 2.3%- seriously? Even if most people wait for the Steam sales as opposed to most paying full price on the consoles, 2.3% seems way too low. Does the UK market hate PC gaming?

Why does this not surprise me.

@Qun_Mang This only covers physical games, no digital downloads.

@hieveryone UK =/= Europe. Nintendo's market share is kinda weak in the UK, but it's pretty good in Germany, France, Spain and pretty much the rest of Europe.

FIFA on Switch is very important to Switch's UK prospects.

Wii U had FIFA (which was great, btw), but it wasn't the same version of FIFA you could put in your bag and take to school/college/work/friends' etc. and I don't think it was as full featured as the versions on PS360.

A fully-featured up-to-date FIFA on Switch is far more important than pretty much any other title in the UK. FIFA has two titles in the top 13 of that list.

@gcunit spot on

@Anti-Matter it's called football

Just thinking I'm part of that 2.1% makes me feel very small in context with the wider gaming community.

I'm surprised it made anything with almost no games! I think that is a win!

To all the people thinking UK is dead to Nintendo, this simply isn't true. Nintendo want back the Wii and DS levels of success in the U.K. They just didn't want to spend the money it would have cost them to improve Wii U's fortunes when 3DS was already costing big money to stay afloat.

Just a quick reminder that the Wii U has done badly everywhere, before all the "UK hates Nintendo" stuff...

@XCWarrior
Except that the best-selling console of all time in the UK is the Nintendo DS.

And (while this is from a couple of years ago) here is a list of the best-selling (single SKU) games of all time in the UK; 7 Nintendo games in the top 10:

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/feature-uk-s-top-ten-single-skus-of-all-time/095012

Nintendo's position this last gen in the UK market is pretty much the same as most places.

On the bright side, at least the Playstation Vita's existence keeps it from being the worst game system of the year.

@XCWarrior You do not know what you are talking about, all my friends are Nintendo gamers, it wasn't just us in the UK who thought the Wii U was just an updated controller for the original Wii console.

The Marketing was terrible, and also the only good games have come out lately in its hayday, Hyrule Warriors, Smash Bros, New Zelda (yeah if that isn't cancelled yet)

@gcunit my nephew loves Nintendo, loved his Wii, Wii U and 3DS but his parents got him a PS4 for Christmas cuz the poor bugger has been playing Fifa 13 for literally years. Fifa means nothing to me, but it's hugely important for a lot of people & I really believe Nintendo need it for the Nintendo Switch.

Are there any reliable figures for eShop/non-physical software? I've only bought 1 Nintendo game physically this year (and that was only for the Wolk Link amiibo) but many more on eShop.

@Bunkerneath You and your 5-6 friends CLEARLY don't make up the majority of the UK market. The market, as shown with the factual numbers above, show there are basically no Nintendo fans in the UK.

@Haywired That was YEARS ago. UK is clearly now a PS4/Xboner country. This year's numbers are the ones that matter. No business people care what happened with DS a generation ago. Nintendo has more than 8 percent of the market in US and especially in Japan. You (I'm assuming your a UK person) are one of like 100 people still buying Nintendo products. You don't deserve Switch day 1. Sorry, the numbers in this story prove that.

I'm not saying don't bring Switch to the UK. You just don't get it for like 3 months. What's the saying, "absence makes the heart go fonder...." well it's time to test that theory.

You still can have all the new 3DS and WiiU games. I'm not calling for a full UK Nintendo ban, just don't get Switch on Day 1, ensures better stock for markets that want it more.

@JamesR Digital sales don't make up a high percentage of the market on any of the 3 systems. If they did, the companies would flaunt them. Digital sales make up a good percentage of "hardcore gamers" that visit these websites.... but those people make up about 1% of the actual video game market.

The biggest surprise in the whole thing for me is Rocket League's physical version being in the top 25 selling games. For a game that surely had a much bigger digital presence, that's a phenomenal success!

Considering that there were barely any nintendo systems in stock anywhere, that means they sold 100% of stock!
That's actually good... just imagine if there were more stock available!

Well I can only guess most Wii u owners in the uk have a playstion or Xbox as their main console. Come on games sell hardware and Nintendo did not provide

@XCWarrior

So I have to wait a few more months because you want to punish the UK !!!!!

You can go off some people u know.

@XCWarrior
I don't dispute that the Wii U has had disastrous sales in the UK, but people are talking like that's an anomaly in the world. Is the US not also now PS4/Xbox1 country? What Switch delay should the US face for shunning the Wii U?

So many ignorant people belittling the UK market's tastes in gaming. NPD figures come out tonight and I guarantee it will be just as bad for North America. In fact, it's worse, because you usually get at least 3 sports titles in the top 10 EVERY year (Madden, FIFA, NBA2K)

@XCWarrior I very much doubt Nintendo's share in the US is much better than 8% Just check out NPD every month. PS4 and Xbone each outsell the Wii U by over 10 to 1 every single month. 3DS isn't faring much better. I think you're probably doing the exact thing you're accusing others of doing. You're in the US and your opinion is that Nintendo is doing okay, then you come online and see articles about how Nintendo is struggling in the UK. The same news comes out every month with NPD about how it's just as bad in North America but Nintendo Life won't post the numbers because NPD is meant to be for members only.

@XCWarrior

Interesting. I've gone completely digital for Wii U/3DS and am unlikely to buy any physical Switch games if I can get away with it. I wonder if the digital sales a so low, why even bother with the infrastructure at all.

But yet Nintendo was fourth on the charts for software behind three multiplatform developers, EA, Activision and Ubisoft. I think that is something positive to take from this.

@Peach64 The 3DS sold out in November and December in the U.S. 3DS games do crack the top 10. Amiibo have been reported to sell much better in the U.S. than in the UK or Japan. I'm not saying Nintendo is doing gangbusters in the U.S., but I bet they are close to say 15% of the market, and U.S. is a MUCH bigger market, so 15% of the U.S. is a lot higher of a number than 15% of the U.K., where the population is lower.

Amazing it got any shelf space at all considering.

@JamesR I want to see digital sales so badly.

I've read articles talk about how devs only do virtual console on all of the systems as a fan service, they either make no money or little money on the digital rereleases of older games.

I thought NPD said they would start including digital sales, but maybe that was a rumor? I do agree we don't get a true number only seeing physical sales. For one, PC would probably be much higher than 2.3%, likely higher than the WiiU. That's going to see the most benefit from digital sales.

@XCWarrior That's just unfair on all the UK Nintendo fans... and really petty as well.

What does this data look like if mobile is figured in? I would think it eclipses console revenue by a wide margin.

@NintendoFan990 It's not unfair or petty. It's business.

If you owned a business, and you made 3,000 of Product X. You send 1,000 of PX to location A, 1,000 of PX to location B, 1,000 to Location C. Location A buys 800 of the 1,000 units. Location B only buys 400 of 1,000 units and Location C only buys 150 of the units.

When you go to sell Product X V. 2, are you seriously going to send stuff to Location C, when you lost money from 850 of the units of PX didn't sell?

Not if you want to still be in business.

I don't dislike the UK, but you guys aren't buying Nintendo products. That's your fault, I didn't make you stop buying them.

@Mr_Zurkon Great point, all the numbers would shrink by a lot. Another great reason we need digital sales. For both the PC and mobile markets.

@Megas Nintendo did give freedom to younger minds.. Splatoon is a product of that and from what I hear the Switch is as well. Hopefully this trend continues and more new content emerges

This was never in question. The other companies made games which combined quality with broad appeal, while Nintendo only had Pokemon which achieved that combination. Sure they had quality titles, but Fire Emblem, a Zelda remake and Pokken Tournament are more for dedicated fans than casual gamers. I'd be interested to know what the 3ds software figures would have been like had Pokemon not come out this year.

@XCWarrior Yeah the data I saw for 2016 Europe was $5.7 billion USD for mobile vs $2.6 billion USD of console. I haven't seen a UK specific breakdown though and I would be curious to see that.

I'm surprised how low PC software sales are and yet all publishers are more than happy to release multiformat games on PC until the views come home. I realise that there are no platform license costs attached, but even so.

I find it interesting that over the last five years the UK has produced the two best Nintendo websites in the world and at the same time has the lowest Nintendo support of all the major world markets.

It's not nintendos fault. It's the people's fault for not buying Nintendo.

Sarcasm

@Octane That would be a good reason for the low PC percentage then. I'm curious as to what the numbers would look like with all game sales taken into consideration, not just physical.

It's a shame that only UK sales data seems to get published here as it's just used as an excuse by some to single out the UK for the Wii U/Nintendo's ills, as if the UK is somehow particularly anti-Nintendo... Yeah, because the Wii U has been such a huge success in your country...

@Angelic_Lapras_King Vita is officially the world's most underrated console, I guess. But I love it regardless.

@Anti-Matter

I generally don't like to judge about things that I haven't done, seen, tasted or felt. Trying is the ONLY way to find out whether or not you like it, in my opinion that is of course.

@electrolite77 exactly. It's silly to say uk hate Nintendo. It just shows uk are more smart with their money

@nhSnork Yeah, not saying its a bad handheld. Just Sony's treatment of the system outside of Japan was.

You'd think if they'd learn anything from the PSP, it would be that....

That is a pretty bland line up (and I own some of those games).

I find it hilarious that vita is fighting the ds for 9th place

@XCWarrior Despite the decline of Video games in Japan, Japan market for video games is greater than some of larger European countries combined!

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/

It takes the markets of Germany, UK, France and Spain combined to slightly beat out the Japanese gaming market.

@XCWarrior Just send less units...

Is it really that hard to understand?

@NintendoFan990 Apparently, what you do is make everything cost more in the UK than in Japan in the U.S. Didn't predict that.

@Peach64 You constantly compare the UK to the US, as if you want to drag the US down with your country. You're a broken record. A better comparison for the UK, both geographical and cultural/population wise is other countries in Europe. But you don't want to do that, because places like France and Germany have much better Nintendo hardware and software sales than the UK. Saying over and over again that the US hates Nintendo as much as the UK is not a good argument, so get over it.

@clevbrowns94 Why is it an unfair comparison? In the US, Microsoft and Sony outsell Nintendo by a huge margin, just like the UK. In the US, Call of Duty and sports games outsell Nintendo's big games, just like in the UK. The two markets have pretty much the exact same taste in gaming.

I doubt anyone is still reading, but here is the US Top 10 for 2016. Pretty much identical to the UK chart but 3 sports games instead of 1

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Activision Blizzard)
Battlefield 1 (EA)
Tom Clancy’s The Division (Ubisoft)
NBA 2K17 (Take-Two)
Madden NFL 17 (EA)
Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two)
Overwatch (Activision Blizzard)
Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard)
FIFA 17 (EA)
Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix)