Germany overtakes UK as top games market in Europe

Germany has reportedly overtaken the UK in 2009 to become the largest video games market in Europe.

The UK and Germany are both the top earners for the video games industry in Europe, with the latter apparently becoming the regions new number one, showing the scale of the effect a ban on violent video games in Germany would have on the industry.

So why has there been a change of guards following Britain's 2008 achievement to overtake Japan's video game market for the first time?

The recession has not impacted Germany significantly with software sales remaining constant in the country, while a decline of 20 per cent was felt in the UK, according to numbers produced by Gfk Chart-Track.

However, there has been growth elsewhere in Europe, with Portugal seeing the greatest increase at a 16 per cent rise in games sold. Sweden has experienced four per cent in growth, with a 2.4 per cent increase in The Netherlands.

Italy and Belgium were largely static, with a slight increase in Italy and a slight decrease in Belgium.

Britain was the only country to suffer a significant decline, with France and Spain also experiencing a shrinking games market in the first half of 2009.

Wii Fit was the top seller in Germany, Britain, and Australia, with the game also doing well in Italy, Sweden and Finland. PlayStation's Singstar was also a top seller in these regions.

---

Via Media-Control