Call of Duty: Black Ops II outsells all-comers to be biggest-selling entertainment product of 2012 Call of Duty: Black Ops II was the UK's biggest-selling entertainment title in 2012 with sales of 2.7m copies, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).

It sold over one million copies more than the biggest-selling video title of the year, The Dark Knight Rises, and 1.2m copies more than the biggest-selling album, Emeli Sande's Our Version of Events.

2011's biggest-selling entertainment title was Adele's 21 which sold 3.9m units. In 2012 it sold a further 816,317 copies to become the seventeenth biggest-selling entertainment title of the year.

The 2012 Entertainment Chart, combining sales of the best-selling music, video and games titles, is published today (12 March 2013) in the annual ERA Yearbook.

Video accounted for 23 titles in the Top 40, with music taking 10 and games seven.

But confirming retail complaints that 2012 was a poor year for releases, overall sales of the Top 40 titles plunged by 25% compared with the previous year. In 2011 some 19 titles sold over one million units; in 2012 there were just eight. In 2011 the Entertainment Top 40 generated sales of 49.3m units; in 2012 the total was just 36.9m units.

ERA Director General Kim Bayley said, "2012 was a tough year for entertainment due to a
number of factors, but this sharp 25% shrinkage in sales of the biggest titles suggests that the quality of releases was at least partly to blame. Luckily 2013 has got off to a good start with Skyfall already selling more than 2m copies - way ahead of last year's biggest-selling
video,The Dark Knight Rises."

ENDS

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Notes to Editors

The Entertainment Retailers Association represents retailers of music video and games, ranging from small independents to Britain's biggest supermarkets, from bricks and mortar retailers to the new generation of streaming services.

The Entertainment Chart aggregates sales data from the Official Charts Company (music and video) and GfK Chart-track (videogames) to provide a unique annual snapshot of the UK entertainment market.