Why do UK Vita retail games never make the main chart?

We've always known Vita games haven't sold well in recent years, well here's how few they sell, as a format. That answers the question why its so rare for a Vita game to hit the full chart. All hail our almost-digital-only-future!

Most weeks I chuckle and joke that any new Vita charting game sold maybe 300 copies. Turns out, I was right. This is why... the Vita barely sold 5,000 copies of boxed games in retail stores last month. The stat from font-of-all-sales-knowledge, ZhugeEX on Twitter, helps explain why you don't see games in stores these days. And with sales down nearly 70% on last year, that will never change.

I think Steins Gate in 2015 and Final Fantasy X/X-II in 2014 were the last Vita games to break into the all formats chart. That's a long way to fall considering Vita dominated the top 10 on launch, but all those games had gone within a month, and only bigger names like Mortal Kombat or exclusives like Gravity Rush, AC3: Liberation and CoD Declassified would really bother the main chart.

Largely because I guess most of these come from Amazon and other online retailers, not the few places that still put boxes on shelves. Also, most Vita owners are either digital only, especially with constant sales happening, or buy games from Limited Run or places likes NISA's store for limited editions, which don't register with retail sales. Finally, most of those boxed sales are probably Minecraft or Lego games, perennial top five lurkers in the Vita chart.

And, to think, the UK is one of the Vita's more popular territories, so expect even worse stats from around the west. Generally though, boxed software only has a few months more to live before it becomes either collectables only or history.