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The holiday period is about to begin and what it means for retail

For Europe, the annual release of FIFA usually marks the beginning of the retail holiday for the video game industry. In 2018 FIFA 19 released on 28th September (week 39), in 2019 FIFA 20 released on 24th September (week 39) and in 2020 FIFA 21 released on 6th October (week 41). This year FIFA 22 was released on Friday 1st October (week 39). It is safe to assume that from week 39 the market for video games sales gets busy. It is a well-known fact that the two-month window of October and November drives the largest sales for video game software in the whole calendar year. This is due to the symbiotic relationship that big games release at the same time when gift buying for the Q4 holiday period starts. Let us briefly explore the impact week 39 to week 52 has had on retail and digital download sales. From here on, this period will be described as the “Q4” period. 

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