According to the latest ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) six month sales figures, UK video game magazines have showed an overall upswing, with publisher Future showing overall circulation increases of 23 percent and growth in every console-specific title.
Future says its 'Official' console magazines are spearheading its growth, showing 37 percent increases in its Official Nintendo magazine to 58,574 copies, and its Official Xbox Magazine growing 19 percent to 66,894 copies, making it, says Future, "the UK's best-selling games magazine." Xbox World 360, too, increased by 37 percent to 31,698 copies.
Future's two latest magazine offerings, Official PlayStation Magazine and independent DS and Wii offering NGamer posted debuts at 46,018 and 17,047, respectively.
On its multi-format front, Future showed smaller increases, with Edge growing slightly from 30,021 to 31,304 copies, and GamesMaster growing from 47,719 to 51,389. Both its PC specific magazines continued to decline in readership, with PC Gamer falling from 41,599 to 38,654, and PC Zone falling from 24,385 to 22,297.
While Future's publishing outfit dominates UK magazines, rival publisher Imagine also saw incremental increases in its Xbox 360 related magazines. X360 rose from 30,179 to 32,705, and 360 inched up from 12,017 to 13,364.
While its Play and GamesTM magazines were not reported in the last cycle, Play fell from the same period last year, when it was at 29,086, to 24,007 copies. GamesTM rose slightly from 20,370 to 22,284.
Finally, the sole games magazine from Uncooked Media, 360 Gamer, saw another incremental rise from the last report, going from 12,586 copies to 13,928.
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My guess is the main reason people buy less PC magazines is they are simply not worth buying. The format was stale 3 years ago. It is rancid now.