EA and Activision Dominate Christmas Sales in the UK Since 1984; FIFA and Call of Duty Among Best-Selling Franchises

Publishers Electronic Arts (EA) and Activision have been dominating videogame Christmas sales in the UK since 1984.

This new information comes from market research house GFK, as reported by Gamesindustry.biz. The new data shows that both publishers take been among the biggest Christmas publishers going back as far as 1984 with that year'due south Ghostbusters from Activision being the all-time-selling game during Christmas. As expected, FIFA has been the acknowledged franchise for EA ever since 1993, whereas Call of Duty has been the dominant franchise for Activision since the release of Modern Warfare 4 back in 2007. Of course, it should exist noted that the first Phone call of Duty was released 10 years later the commencement FIFA installment.

The data shows that EA has had a total of thirteen number 1 games in the charts during Christmas since 1984, whereas Activision managed to score a total of ten number 1 spots. Interestingly, with nine number one spots, both the FIFA and Telephone call of Duty franchises are on par when information technology comes to the Christmas number ones. While the Call of Duty franchise has been the dominant seller for Activision, EA could too rely on the Need for Speed and Medal for Honor franchises next to the e'er-popular FIFA franchise. Nosotros can't aid to wonder why EA's own shooting IP, the Battleground franchise, isn't on this list.

Honorable mentions go to publisher Take-2 with having 2 franchises in the Christmas charts – GTA: Vice City and Ruby-red Dead Redemption 2 were the acknowledged titles in 2002 and 2018 respectively.

"Other i-hit wonders in the Christmas peak-sellers include Sega with 1992's Sonic The Hedgehog ii, Bethesda with Skyrim in 2011, and Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which topped the nautical chart in 2020", Gamesindustry.biz writes.

Unexpectedly, Nintendo has simply one time claimed the beginning spot in the Christmas sales charts since 1984 – simply 1998'due south Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 managed to grab commencement place in the UK.

Quite an interesting list from GFK, although this information only includes physical sales in the Uk. Down below we've included the full list, courtesy of GFK.