UK Used Games Sales up 25%
A report on Kantar Worldpanel states that despite the fact that only two years ago people were predicting the collapse of the pre-owned games industry, with the arrival of next-gen gaming, the sector is actually thriving. The report mentions that while digital sales are making more ground than ever before, with a 1.1% decrease in boxed sales, pre-owned sales have still managed to rise by 25% during the twelve months ending on the 2nd of August. Apparently in those twelve months the sector was worth £126.3m.
Interestingly the same report mentions that the amount of consumers buying pre-owned games in the UK has not actually increased, but has stayed at a constant 3.2 million shoppers. However, the amount each shopper spends per game has actually increased by £10 over the span of the last twelve months, that’s from an average of £30 raising to £40. Around 72% of the shoppers in the pre-owned market also bought a new game last year.
The report then goes on to tell of how 79% of new game purchases are pre-planned with only 21% of them being impulse buys, while 44% of pre-owned games are impulse buys. Pre-owned games make up one-third of the overall purchases for gamers under 25 years of age.
What consoles are getting the most second hand sales? Well pre-owned games make up two-thirds of last-gen sales, while they make up just one-third of current-gen sales. Those stats probably reflect the fact that there aren’t as many new games coming out for last gen consoles, so it makes sense that more pre-owned games would be sold there. Another reason for a smaller pre-owned market on current-gen could be the increase in the amount of games that have season passes, these encourage gamers to hang onto their games with the promise of more content in the future. What that content might be isn’t always clear, just look a Fallout 4 for example. A final reason could be that the majority of gamers who buy pre-owned titles still haven’t adopted a current-gen console yet, perhaps when they do they’ll bring their old buying habits with them.
