Digital Game Sales Dominate UK Market in August

According to recent data, 1.74 million video games were sold in the UK during August, marking a slight decline of 1.5% from the previous year. The month was relatively quiet for the gaming industry, with Take-Two being a notable exception, driven by the success of Rockstar's GTA 5 and GTA Online, as well as 2K Games' Borderlands, Mafia, and WWE titles. The Borderlands series saw a resurgence in popularity following promotional activities tied to the Borderlands movie and the announcement of Borderlands 4. In terms of digital sales, a significant 75% of games sold by major publishers in the UK were downloaded, representing a 10 percentage point increase from August last year. New releases, such as Madden NFL 25, experienced mixed results, while classic titles like TimeSplitters and Doom saw renewed interest. The console market continued to struggle, with just under 75,000 units sold in August, a 3% drop from the previous month and 45% down from the same period last year. Accessories sales also declined, with 516,774 controllers and other items sold, down 4.5% from July and 9.6% from August last year. The DualSense controllers remained the top-selling accessories, while the PlayStation Portal led in terms of revenue.