Worldwide packaged media up 6% in 2008

Videogames sales bigger than DVD/Blu-ray for first time

By Marcy Magiera -- Video Business, 1/21/2009

JAN. 22 | Global retail sales of packaged home entertainment grew 6% to hit $61 billion in 2008, with fast-growing videogames for the first time outweighing DVD and Blu-ray Disc, according to international research concern Media Control GfK International.

In its 2008 wrap-up and 2009 forecast, GfK predicts games will grow to represent 57% of entertainment software sales in 2009, up from 53% in 2008 and 47% in 2009.

In Italy and Spain, games already represent 67% of consumer spending on home entertainment software.

GfK's report, which includes only consumer sales of home entertainment products and no rental revenue, predicts that game software sales will grow 12% globally this year, to reach $36 billion, while DVD and Blu-ray combined will decline another 4%, to about $27 billion, despite the fact that Blu-ray will again more than double, hitting $2.9 billion.

In 2008, the declines in DVD dragged down the market’s growth. Game software sales grew 20% in 2008, to $32 billion, according to GfK, driven by the popularity of Nintendo’s Wii console. Combined DVD/Blu-ray sales fell 6%, to $29 billion.

The industry’s actual 2008 finish underperformed GfK’s mid-year forecast, which had predicted games would grow by 22%, and DVD/Blu-ray by 1%, for total industry growth of 12%. GfK’s U.S. president, Amy Heller, attributed the difference to the economic upheaval in the second half of last year.

The U.S. market drove DVD’s global decline in 2008, with combined DVD/Blu-ray sales off 8% domestically and in North America, compared to a decline of just 3% in Europe and 4% in Asia Pacific.

The U.S.’s share of worldwide sales also fell, to 43% in 2008, from 45% in 2007, though it remains three times the size of the No. 2 market, the U.K.

Warner Home Video is the global market share leader in DVD/Blu-ray, according to GfK, and Nintendo dominated videogame software sales.

Warner’s The Dark Knight was the top DVD title worldwide, with sales of more than 15 million units, while Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s Mamma Mia! led outside of North America, with more than 13 million units sold worldwide.

Top titles in individual countries exhibited a strong local flavor last year, with French box-office blockbuster Bievenue chez les Ch’tis topping the charts there, while Germans went for Keinohrhasen, and Australians favored the TV series Underbelly.