Call of Duty: Black Ops II was biggest-selling entertainment title of 2012

13 Mar 2013

Call of Duty: Black Ops II was the UK’s biggest-selling entertainment title in 2012 with sales of 2.7m copies, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) in the UK.

The game sold more than 1m copies, more than the biggest-selling video title of the year, The Dark Knight Rises, and 1.2m copies more than the biggest-selling album, Emeli Sande’s Our Version of Events.

The year 2011’s biggest-selling entertainment title was Adele’s 21, which sold 3.9m units. In 2012, it sold a further 816,317 copies to become the 17th biggest-selling entertainment title of the year.

The 2012 Entertainment Chart, combining sales of the best-selling music, video and games titles, has been published in the annual ERA Yearbook.

Video accounted for 23 titles in the top 40, with music taking 10 and games seven.

2012 was a tough year for entertainment

But confirming retail complaints that 2012 was a poor year for releases, overall sales of the top 40 titles plunged by 25pc compared with the previous year. In 2011, some 19 titles sold more than 1m units; in 2012 there were just eight. In 2011, the Entertainment Top 40 generated sales of 49.3m units; in 2012 the total was just 36.9m units.

“(The year) 2012 was a tough year for entertainment due to a number of factors, but this sharp 25pc shrinkage in sales of the biggest titles suggests that the quality of releases was at least partly to blame,” ERA director general Kim Bayley said.

“Luckily, 2013 has got off to a good start, with Skyfall already selling more than 2m copies – way ahead of last year’s biggest-selling video, The Dark Knight Rises.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com