Amazon tops gaming retailers while HMV takes top music spot

The latest data on the physical entertainment market from Kantar Worldpanel showed strong gains in gaming for Sony, as PlayStation 4 increased its share of new generation console software to 58%.

In the 12 weeks to 23 September, the console’s superhero adventure ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ title had proved a huge success, according to the data being bought by almost 50% more shoppers than 2017’s third quarter best-seller, ‘Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy’.

“Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4 was a massive coup for Sony,” said Kantar Worldpanel analyst Sam Causley.

“The game sold more copies in the first two months of its release than any PlayStation 4 exclusive in history suggesting its extensive marketing campaign was well worth the investment.

“With Sony teasing fans in October by confirming that it is working on a fifth version of the PlayStation, it will be interesting to see whether future titles can replicate the game’s popularity.”

Causley noted that, although the new console was not expected to launch until around 2020, the manufacturer was hoping that the start of the countdown would generate more excitement around its games, rather than stunting sales of its current products.

Among retailers, Amazon had the most success cashing in on new game releases this quarter, with the online giant increasing sales of brand new games by 60% - helping to grow its market share of the total entertainment sector by 1.8 percentage points to 23.2%.

That widened the gap between Amazon and its closest rival, HMV, to almost five percentage points.

“Amazon’s success was driven primarily by under 35 males, who accounted for £3.9m of the £7.9m growth,” said Sam Causley.

“This is unsurprisingly a core demographic for video games, but if the retailer works harder to reach more audiences it could improve its performance even further.”

Outside of the ‘pure-play’ retailers, Sainsbury’s reportedly had a strong quarter in home video, increasing its share of the DVD and Blu-ray market by 1.7 percentage points.

Despite that, the number of impulse buys of video products had dramatically fallen, translating to a loss of £18m to the category compared with the same period last year.

“While it does represent a stark loss, retailers could choose to see the drop in impulse purchases as a sign that they should focus on attracting more browsing shoppers,” Causley explained.

“The video market is a great opportunity for retailers to engage with fun, experiential marketing techniques.

“By making aisles and displays enjoyable to explore, supermarkets can appeal to consumers who aren’t just looking to grab what they need and go.”

Causley said those types of campaigns appealed beyond a title’s regular fan base, and were often discussed on social media and through word of mouth.

For example, one in 10 who bought Deadpool 2 were said to have been aware of its experiential marketing campaign, which saw a pop-up version of 90s video store Blockbuster open for two days in Shoreditch.

In the digital market, the UK remained a strong source of growth for Netflix, according to the Kantar data.

The number of people who had access to an account with the streaming service in the month to 23 September increased by 31% compared with the same time last year.

That was faster growth than its closest competitor, Amazon Prime, which registered a 24% increase in the same period.

In music, those with a subscription to streaming services reached an all-time high, with those now held by 16.3% of the population.

For physical music, the milestone release of ‘Now That’s What I Call Music 100’ was described as a “significant boost” for retailers by Kantar, with the centenary edition of the compilation series selling almost twice as many copies as its predecessor Now 99.

HMV experienced market share growth for the second consecutive period in music, increasing to 28% and overtaking Amazon to become the largest physical music retailer.

Kantar said HMV was boosted by sales of the ‘Mamma Mia 2’ soundtrack, and would be hoping the film’s multimedia offer would provide a continued uplift.

“As was the case with the release of The Greatest Showman earlier this year, retailers will be hoping that the strong performance of the Mamma Mia 2 soundtrack will translate into positive sales for the film when it is released on DVD and Blu-ray,” said Sam Causley.

“Combined with the release of Cher’s album of Abba covers, Dancing Queen, this could mean that the Swedish pop sensations have a noticeable impact on the entertainment market in the run up to Christmas.”