Sony’s Playstation 4 has scored an early win over its rival, Microsoft’s Xbox One.
Figures published by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) show that UK customers bought 530,000 Playstation 4 consoles, 166,000 more than the Xbox One’s 364,000 sales.
The arrival of both Next Generation consoles came too late to prevent the UK’s £1.18bn games market ending 2.9% down on 2012.
Despite the gloomy end of year result, Grand Theft Auto V sold 3.67m copies to take the crown of biggest-selling console game of the year.
The ERA’s Kim Bayley said, “Games continues to deliver digital sales strongly, but it was disappointing that Xbox One and PS4 came so late in 2013 and then huge demand meant stock sold out quickly.
“Retailers will be working hard in 2014 to maintain the sales momentum of these two great new pieces of kit.”