According to M.Video-Eldorado estimates, for 9 months of 2023, Russians bought 2.5 times more game consoles than a year earlier, and sales exceeded 15 billion rubles.
Vladislav Bogovik, owner of the Retro Genesis brand, attributes this to the low base effect of last year. In March 2022, Sony and Microsoft announced their departure and stopped supplies of their consoles to Russia. The result of this was a double drop in sales compared to 2021.
It took third-party companies six months to adapt, so in 2022 the middle of the year shows a collapse in supplies – the period with which comparison is made in the MVideo-Eldorado study. Therefore, in relation to the disastrous 2022, the results of this year simply look like a restoration of demand from buyers. Added to this is an increase in interest by 20%, as well as an increase in shipping prices due to markups on parallel imports and exchange rate differences.
More relevant in this case was the dynamics in another segment that did not have supply problems – the market for retro game consoles. Almost all devices on the market are manufactured either in China or in Russia; the brands are also owned by Russian companies. According to the company, sales of retro consoles under the Retro Genesis brand over the first 9 months increased by 20% compared to last year.
Thus, talking about explosive sales growth is not entirely correct. There is growth, but it is small, and such impressive results presented in the report only indicate a massive failure in sales in the previous year.
