Single-console mags show rises in latest ABC figures

The latest data from the UK Audit Bureau of Circulation shows that while single-console magazines increased their circulation slightly in the second half of last year, sales of PC and multiformat titles continue to decline.

Future's Official PlayStation 2 magazine continues to lead the pack by a huge margin, with its circulation up to 188,000 in the latest audit - over 100,000 copies ahead of its nearest rival, Official UK Xbox Magazine, which is also published by Future and saw its circulation grow to almost 83,000..

Other publications recording rising circulation in the recent figures include PS2 magazines P2 (Highbury) and PlayStation World (Future), while Highbury's Play showed healthy circulation of over 57,000. GameCube titles Nintendo Official Magazine (Emap) and Cube (Highbury) also both rose in circulation.

However, the picture is less rosy for PC magazines, with both PC Gamer (Future) and PC Zone (Dennis) seeing their circulation fall again in these figures, with Gamer now at just over 64,000 circulation while Zone has around 45,000.

Multi-format magazines also suffered, as Dennis' Computer & Video Games dropped to under 27,800 circulation, in danger of dropping below the 27,300 circulation of EDGE - although the company has announced a major overhaul of this flagship title which may reverse that trend. It'll need to - Future's rival title GamesMaster recorded circulation of well over 50,000 copies, although even at that, the magazine's figures are still dropping.