Black Friday was a momentous occasion. Unfortunately, it also saw a decline in sales compared to the previous year. Even this year, while we had some very positive sales for consoles, the results show a decline compared to the previous year. The highlight was the Nintendo Switch, which became the best-selling console during the Black Friday sales.

　　The main reason why the Switch sold gangbusters was due to the return of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle, which includes the console, the highly popular video game, and three months of Nintendo Switch Online. Thanks to this, the Nintendo Switch accounted for 42% of all consoles sold during the week.

　　However, the Nintendo Switch saw sales volumes go way down over 2021's Black Friday. Why? Because both Sony and Microsoft targeted this week with highly tempting offers. This very same week saw Xbox gaining the second position in terms of best-selling consoles. This is due to the Xbox Series S being discounted to under £200. Because of this, the Xbox consoles accounted for 40% of all consoles sold during the week.

　　Meanwhile, the PlayStation 5 was the weakest of the bunch. This particular console only accounted for 18% of the console sales. All three consoles posted their biggest sales weeks of the year so far during the Black Friday period, so we have that going for them, at least.

　　Now, to follow up from the previous article, which accounted for physical sales, we now know, thanks to GfK that revenue during Black Friday 2022 was split 41% for consoles, 39% for accessories, and 21% for physical games -- the smallest share for software to-date. 81% of the sales were via online retailers, the second biggest share for online retailers, only paired by 2020's Black Friday, which happened due to the lockdown caused by COVID-19.

　　One additional tidbit of information before we wrap this up. 2022's Black Friday saw VR being a star performer. Last week was the all-time No.1 for VR revenue in the UK and No.5 in terms of unit sales.