UK retail game sales surpass music sales

The UK's Entertainment Retailers' Association's latest figures have revealed that video game sales in the UK have now surpassed the sales of the music industry - and are fast catching up to DVD sales.

MCV has posted that UK game sales have gone from £1.3 billion in 2005 to £1.7 billion in sales last year. Music sales meanwhile have gone from £1.8 billion to £1.4 billion in the same time and continue to follow a downward trend.

The DVD and video market meanwhile has plateaued in recent years, producing static sales figures of £2.1 billion for the last three years in a row.

Current projections show that the game industry's growth rate will have it surpass retail movie sales in the very near future.

Oh, and just like NPD figures, these figures only monitor ERA-tracked retail numbers and don't take into account online sales. That's a double edged sword though because, while the ERA stats don't account for increased sales on Steam and Xbox Live, it doesn't count iTunes sales either.

When was the last time you bought a game, an album or a movie? Let us know in the forums.