Vinyl outsells PlayStation but not Nintendo Switch games in the UK

Vinyl is the UK’s second best selling physical entertainment format in 2022, according to new research.

Only Nintendo Switch games are ahead of vinyl in terms of sales so far this year, despite being down 12.5 per cent year-on-year while record sales are up 12.2 per cent, figures from the Entertainment Retailers Association show.

According to ERA, vinyl has generated £80.9million in sales so far in 2022, up from £72.1million this time last year.

The format is also outselling Playstation games, which saw a 6.5 per cent year-on-year rise and CDs which are down 8.1 per cent.

“Vinyl’s rise and rise seems unstoppable,” said ERA CEO Kim Bayley. “For a 74-year-old analogue format to eclipse the digital-age technology of games platforms is quite extraordinary. Ten years into its long climb back to favour, the vinyl revival is most definitely here to stay.”

It comes after vinyl record sales in 2021 were at the highest they’ve been in 30 years, despite widely publicised issues with backlogs and delays.

According to figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), more than five million vinyl records were sold last year, an 8 per cent increase on 2020. It marked the 14th year in a row that the format has increased sales, with vinyl records making up 23 per cent of all albums sold.

The biggest-selling vinyl album of 2021 was ABBA‘s comeback record ‘Voyage’, while Adele‘s huge ’30’ and Sam Fender‘s ‘Seventeen Going Under’ – NME’s Album Of The Year – also sold big on wax.

Campaigns such as LoveRecordStores, Record Store Day and National Album Day also helped rally sales for independent record shops and specialist chains.

Meanwhile, Glasgow was recently named the vinyl collecting capital of the UK, according to a new study.