UK Hardware and Software Sales Thread: APRIL 2024

[KK]

The UK games market in May was driven by the launch of one particularly big Nintendo Switch game.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was comfortably the No.1 game in May (GSD data), and that's without Nintendo sharing digital data with the GSD charts (Nintendo is the only major company that currently withholds these figures).

It's the biggest Zelda game launch in UK history, and its lifetime sales have already surpassed most previous games in the series. It only sits behind 2006's Twilight Princess and 2017's Breath of the Wild.

The success of Zelda fired the software market in May, with game sales up nearly 30% compared with the same period last year, leading to over 2.17 million titles sold. There was no major game released in May 2022.

The other significant release of May this year was Hogwarts Legacy, which arrived on older generation platforms following its huge launch on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S and X in February. 53% of the game's sales were on PS4 during May, with 24% on Xbox One, with the remainder coming on the current generation machines.

The other new release in the charts is LEGO 2K Drive, which crossed the finishing line at No.19.

The Legend of Zelda also had a big impact in the console hardware space, too. According to GfK panel data, just under 96,000 consoles were sold last month. That's actually a 10% drop over May last year, and 14% down on April.

Nintendo Switch ended PS5's four-month run as the UK's No.1 console, taking the top spot despite a 5% dip in sales month-on-month. However, Switch sales are up 28% over May last year.

Why are Switch sales down over April considering Zelda launched in May? Well, the Tears of the Kingdom Special Edition OLED Switch actually arrived in April. Also, April saw continued sales of the special Mario edition of the Switch, which was launched to coincide with the Super Mario Bros movie in March.

Almost 35% of all Switch consoles sold in May were for the Zelda OLED version.

PS5 sales dropped 23% month-on-month, and it's the first time all year that PS5 sales were lower than they were during the same period in 2022. Xbox Series S and X sales also fell 10% in May compared with April, and are also down over the same period in 2022.

Overall, console sales are up 16.6% so far in 2023 compared with the year before, with PS5 sales up 81%, Switch sales down 8% and Xbox Series S and X sales down 19%.

Finally, in the accessories and peripherals space, 441,268 add-on products were sold in the UK last month (GfK panel data), which is down 9% over April and down 5% over May last year.

The best-selling accessory continues to be the PS5 DualSense controller, although we have a new No.2 in the form of the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, boosted by the launch of the latest Zelda game.

The highest charting new accessory is actually the Zelda edition of the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller (it reached No.20), which was launched to coincide with the game. However, this controller was in very short supply.

A Switch Carry Case tie-in with Zelda also makes the charts at No.32. This product has also sold out.

UK GSD May 2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)

Position / Title
1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
2. Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (EA)
4. FIFA 23 (EA)
5. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
6. Dead Island 2 (Deep Silver)
7. NBA 2K23 (2K Games)
8. Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft)
9. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
10. Tom Clacy's The Division 2 (Ubisoft)

*Digital data unavailable.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/nintendo- ... hly-charts

At least 2K's attempts to rip people off with LEGO has resulted in an average/disappointing chart performance thus far, despite it being one of the games I've seen advertised on TV and YouTube more than any other.

[Drumstick]

Cheers Vince

[KK]

Final Fantasy 16 is the fifth biggest UK boxed launch of 2023 (so far) | UK Boxed Charts

But it's a much smaller launch for physical stores compared with 2016's Final Fantasy 15

Final Fantasy 16 comfortably debuts at No.1 in the UK boxed charts.

It's not a huge boxed launch for the iconic franchise, with sales 74% lower than the boxed release of Final Fantasy 15 from 2016. Of course, Final Fantasy 16 is a PS5 exclusive, whereas its predecessor was on both PS4 and Xbox One. The previous game also launched at a time when the install base for PS4 was higher than the current install base of PS5.

But the biggest reason for the drop will be the acceleration of digital since 2016. When the digital data comes in, the fall compared with 15 will be significantly less severe.

Final Fantasy 16 is the fifth fastest-selling boxed game of the year (so far), behind The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and the remake of Resident Evil 4.

The arrival of the Square Enix game means that Zelda drops to No.2 once again, with sales down 35% week-on-week.

There are other new games in the charts. Sonic Origins Plus debuts at No.3. The Sega game's boxed release did best on Switch (52% of sales), followed by PS5 (29%), Xbox Series X and S (11%) and then PS4 (9%). This is not surprising, as Switch typically performs better in the physical market than the digital market, and Xbox's digital sales share is usually higher than both PlayStation and Switch.

Elsewhere, Aliens: Dark Descent from Focus Home Interactive debuts at No.11 and Crash Team Rumble crosses the finishing line at No.15.

In terms of more recent titles, F1 2023 is down to No.5 with a 51% sales drop, Street Fighter 6 falls out of the Top Ten to No.21 with a 36% dip in sales week-on-week, while Diablo 4 is down to No.8 after a 37% sales tumble.

Finally, Forspoken -- the other Square Enix PS5 exclusive released this year -- is up to No.12 with a 46% rise in sales week-on-week. It's the third consecutive week of sales increases for the game.

Here is the GfK UK Boxed Top Ten for the week ending June 24, 2023:

Last Week This Week Title

New Entry | 1 | Final Fantasy 16
1 | 2 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
New Entry | 3 | Sonic Origin Plus
6 | 4 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2 | 5 | F1 23
4 | 6 | God of War Ragnarok
7 | 7 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
3 | 8 | Diablo 4
5 | 9 | Hogwarts Legacy
8 | 10 | FIFA 23

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/final-fan ... xed-charts

[kazanova_Frankenstein]

MK8 DX still doing big numbers. Incredible.

[Tomous]

MK8 DX still doing big numbers. Incredible.

Currently on 54m, it could well hit 60m.

It already has if you count Wii U I suppose (8.5m).

[kazanova_Frankenstein]

MK8 DX still doing big numbers. Incredible.

Currently on 54m, it could well hit 60m.

It already has if you count Wii U I suppose (8.5m).

I factor in to both of those sales counts. No regrets.

[OrangeRKN]

Forspoken being in the charts surprises me

[jawa_]

Forspoken being in the charts surprises me

The disc version has had heavy discounting (currently £19.99 at Amazon) in past months and new DLC was recently released.

I bought it a while ago but have yet to play!

[Oblomov Boblomov]

This just confirms what we've all known for a long time: Nintendo is teh doomed.

[Moggy]

This just confirms what we've all known for a long time: Nintendo is teh doomed.

After buying Activision and Sega, I am sure MS will rescue Nintendo.

[KK]

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is back at No.1 again in the UK physical retail charts.

The open world adventure game has now secured six No.1s since it released eight weeks ago. It briefly had to accept second place during the weeks that Diablo 4 and Final Fantasy 16 were released. This is all GfK physical retail data.

Final Fantasy 16 was last week's No.1, but drops to second place this week after a 78% fall in sales. This will be different once the digital data is counted, as Nintendo does not supply digital download figures, whereas Square Enix does. Last week, over 56% of Final Fantasy 16's launch sales came via PlayStation Network (GSD Data).

We will dive into the digital performance of the UK games market in our monthly reports, which will be released next week.

The highest new entry this week is AEW: Fight Forever, which is a new wrestling game from the developer Yukes, which handled the development of the WWE games between 2000 and 2018. Reviews suggested the game was a little rough around the edges, but was a strong foundation in which to build from. Its launch UK boxed sales were 40% lower than WWE 2K23, which released in March. This isn't surprising considering the strength of the WWE brand, and it's a solid start for the game.

The next new game in the charts is Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, which debuts at No.7. This is a remake of a much loved Harvest Moon game from 2003, which was initially released on Nintendo GameCube. The remake performed best on Nintendo Switch, which accounted for 89% of sales. 9% of sales were on PS5, with the remaining 2% on Xbox consoles. Note: Digital data is not available for this title.

The final new game in the charts is Master Detective Archives: Rain Code for Nintendo Switch, which reached No.23 in the charts.

Elsewhere, Sonic Origins Plus drops to No.10 in the charts during its second week, with boxed sales only down 34%. And Crash Team Rumble, which debuted at No.15 last week, falls to No.32 after a 53% sales drop.

Here is the GfK UK Boxed Top Ten for the week ending July 1, 2023:

Last Week This Week Title

2 | 1 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
1 | 2 | Final Fantasy 16
New Entry | 3 | AEW: Fight Forever
6 | 4 | God of War Ragnarok
7 | 5 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
10 | 6 | FIFA 23
New Entry | 7 | Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life
9 | 8 | Hogwarts Legacy
4 | 9 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3 | 10 | Sonic Origins Plus

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/zelda-tea ... xed-charts

Crash Bandicoot spin-off Crash Team Rumble not exactly doing the business for Activision, is it.

[Winckle]

Given that 72% of console game sales are digital, this chart seems pretty irrelevant.

[OrangeRKN]

Didn't even realise Crash Team Rumble had come out

(Side note, why did they have to give it the same initials as Crash Team Racing...)

[KK]

Three million digital and physical video games were sold in the UK in June 2023.

The latest GSD data shows that game sales are up 7%, which is a modest result considering the number of big releases in June compared with the same period last year.

Diablo 4 obliterated all competition to be the clear No.1 best-selling game in June.

It is actually the second fastest-selling game of the year after four weeks, behind Hogwarts Legacy. For those wondering 'what about Zelda?' Nintendo doesn't share its digital data with the GSD charts, which means we only have the game's physical sales to go on. In terms of the first four weeks, Zelda is tracking slightly behind Diablo, but that will likely be different if digital data was available for Nintendo's hit game.

57% of Diablo 4's sales were on PC. The remaining 43% of sales came on PS5, Xbox Series S and X and PS4.

Second place belongs to Final Fantasy 16. The Square Enix title's opening two weeks sales are 36% lower than the last major Final Fantasy game, which was Final Fantasy 7: Remake in April 2020.

These results appear to be reflected in other markets, too. It seems like a disappointment, but Square Enix did celebrate the three million global sales milestone, which suggests it is satisfied with the result. There are a few factors to consider, including FF16's PS5 exclusivity, the congested release window and the fact the title is a departure from previous games in the series. The publisher has also been pushing its next major Final Fantasy release, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which is due early next year.

The third game in the charts is also a new release in F1 23. The first three weeks for the EA game are a significant drop on last year's racing title, with sales down 49%. As a franchise, F1's performance often fluctuates depending on the interest in the current F1 season.

Interestingly, F1 sold best on Xbox platforms, with Xbox Series S and X accounting for 48.5% of sales. PS5 accounted for 47.6%, and the remainder was on PS4 and PC.

The final new release in the charts is Street Fighter 6 at No.8. Capcom's game continues to be popular on PlayStation, with PS5 accounting for just over 52% of sales. PC accounted for 23% of sales, Xbox Series S and X with just over 17% and PS4 with more than 7%.

Across the these four new releases, 82% of sales were via digital stores. The game with the highest digital share was Diablo 4, while Final Fantasy 16 had the lowest, which will be partially due to the platforms they’re on – Diablo is a major PC title, which is an almost 100% digital platform, while Final Fantasy 16 is a PS5 title, which still has a strong physical retail business.

The best-selling physical game of the week remains The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the second consecutive month.

PS5 price cutting boosts console sales

Video game console sales rose 15% in June, to 110,000 consoles sold (GfK panel data).

PS5 is back as the top-selling console, with sales up 43% over May. This is due to a surge in sales of the standard PS5 bundled with God of War Ragnarok, which was reduced from £520 to £460 by retailers.

Nintendo Switch is down to No.2, with sales dropping 20%. The Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Special Edition console went from being the No.1 Switch console in April and May, to No.3 in June. It was a strong month for Xbox Series S and X (especially Series X). The platform is still in third place overall, but sales are up 31% month-on-month.

Year-to-date, 722,000 games consoles have been sold, a rise of 11% on the year before. This is due to the PS5, which has seen sales grow 66% year-on-year. Nintendo Switch sales are down 10% year-to-date, while Xbox sales are down 23%.

Finally, over in accessories we have a new No.1 for the first time in a while. The White PS5 DualSense controller is no-longer top (it's No.2), and instead it's the Midnight Black version at No.1. This is due to the variant coming back in stock for the whole month.

The highest charting new accessory is the Starfield Limited Edition Xbox controller, which comes in at No.5.

Overall, 547,000 add-on products were sold, a rise of 24% over May but down 6.3% over June last year.

UK GSD June 2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)

Position Title

1 Diablo 4 (Activision Blizzard)
2 Final Fantasy 16 (Square Enix)
3 F123 (EA)
4 FIFA 23 (EA)
5 Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
6 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
7 Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
8 Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)
9 NBA 2K23 (2K Games)
10 Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)

*Digital data unavailable

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/82-of-str ... hly-charts

[Monkey Man]

UK supermarket chain Tesco will no-longer stock physical video games in its 2,800 stores, Gamesindustry.biz can reveal.

Once the current range of games have sold out, the firm will not be giving any more shelf space to games products. The one exception are digital points cards, which will remain available through its outlets.

It follows the news that GameStop Ireland has closed all of its 35 stores. It operated eight stores in Dublin, six in Cork and three in Limerick.

The retailer told customers it was 'disappointed' to announce the closure, before revealing details of its closing down sale on Instagram in May.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/uk-superm ... es-ireland

[jawa_]

...Tesco will no-longer stock physical video games in its 2,800 stores...

Yeah, my local Tesco got rid of their games, films, music - and nearly all magazines - a few weeks ago. There is now no store near me that sells games.

[KK]

I know they're the UK's number 1 retailer, but I'm guessing they weren't shifting much physical media anymore and would rather turn over the shelf space to homeware and gardening.

That pretty much leaves Argos, ASDA, Currys, GAME (as in the shop, GAME), and Smyths Toys for new releases. Maybe HMV, but there aren't many of those around.

[Jenuall]

[KK]

European video game sales in June jump 20% thanks to Diablo 4 | European Monthly Charts

PS5 continues to dominate across the continent

15.5 million games were sold across Europe last month, according to the latest GSD data.

This data covers digital games from most major AAA games publishers, and physical retail games from the big European countries. Full list below.

Five million games were sold via physical retail, with the remaining 10.5 million via digital download stores.

It's a 20% sales improvement over June last year, driven by a number of major new releases.

Diablo 4 was comfortably the best-selling game of the month and it's the second fastest-selling game of the year behind Hogwarts Legacy. Zelda is the third fastest-selling game, but that game is missing its digital download data (Nintendo doesn't share this information), so it's possible Diablo 4 is really No.3 in terms of the list of fastest selling games of the year.

Diablo 4 is the biggest video game launch in June since the GSD charts began in 2017.

Over 66% of Diablo 4 sales were on PC, with over 21% on PS5 and just under 9% on Xbox Series S and X. The remaining 4% was on PS4.

In second place is Square Enix's Final Fantasy 16. The game's launch is 24% down compared with the last major Final Fantasy game: 2020's Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Final Fantasy 16 is a slightly different take on the series, and the 2020 game was released near the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns (and when the console install base was higher), which may explain the drop.

The next biggest new release is F1 23 from EA. It's a disappointing launch for the official racing game, with sales down almost 47% compared with what F1 22 managed over the same period.

Just under 65% of F1 23's sales were on PS5, with just over 22.5% on Xbox Series S and X and 12.5% on PS4. PC accounted for just 0.3% of sales.

The next notable new game in the June charts is Street Fighter 6 at No.9. Over 51% of sales for Capcom's fighting game was on PS5, with 28% on PC, 12% on Xbox Series S and X and almost 9% on PS4.

Looking purely at those four new releases, 80% of sales came from digital download stores. Obviously, that does fluctuate quite a bit depending on the game, with Diablo 4 at one end of the spectrum and Final Fantasy 16 at the other. In fact, across Europe, Final Fantasy was bought primarily via physical retail stores.

In terms of purely physical retail sales, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just about held Diablo 4 off from the No.1 position.

Over in hardware, just 500,700 games consoles were sold across tracked European markets last month, which is up 33% over last June.

This is due to a spike in sales of PlayStation 5 (up 116%), while Switch sales are down slightly (-2.3%) and Xbox Series S and X sales are basically flat (sales down 0.8%).

PS5 reclaims its spot as Europe's No.1 console, having had to settle for second place last month due to the success of Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Over in accessories, Sony's DualSense controller is No.1, with sales up 6.6% over last year. Then it's the Xbox Wireless controller, which saw a huge jump in sales thanks to the launch of a special edition Starfield version.

Overall, 1.46 million accessories and toys-to-life products were sold, a rise of 5.4% over June 2022.

In terms of points cards, 1.3 million of these were sold last month (up 3.4% year-on-year), and it's still the PlayStation Store Top-Up cards at No.1.

European GSD June 2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)

Position Title
1 Diablo 4 (Activision Blizzard)
2 Final Fantasy 16 (Square Enix)
3 FIFA 23 (EA)
4 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
5 Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
6 F1 23 (EA)
7 Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
8 Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
9 Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)
10 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard)
* Digital data unavailable

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/european- ... hly-charts

I wonder what brought down sales of F1 this year, though I did see the melodramatic trailer and I thought it looked ridiculous. This kind of happened to Sony on PS2 though, didn't it - F1 went from being massive on PS1 to just another annual release on PS2, though maybe the popularity of F1 was also waning at the time.

[Victor Mildew]

European video game sales in June jump 20% thanks to Diablo 4 | European Monthly Charts

PS5 continues to dominate across the continent

15.5 million games were sold across Europe last month, according to the latest GSD data.

This data covers digital games from most major AAA games publishers, and physical retail games from the big European countries. Full list below.

Five million games were sold via physical retail, with the remaining 10.5 million via digital download stores.

It's a 20% sales improvement over June last year, driven by a number of major new releases.

Diablo 4 was comfortably the best-selling game of the month and it's the second fastest-selling game of the year behind Hogwarts Legacy. Zelda is the third fastest-selling game, but that game is missing its digital download data (Nintendo doesn't share this information), so it's possible Diablo 4 is really No.3 in terms of the list of fastest selling games of the year.

Diablo 4 is the biggest video game launch in June since the GSD charts began in 2017.

Over 66% of Diablo 4 sales were on PC, with over 21% on PS5 and just under 9% on Xbox Series S and X. The remaining 4% was on PS4.

In second place is Square Enix's Final Fantasy 16. The game's launch is 24% down compared with the last major Final Fantasy game: 2020's Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Final Fantasy 16 is a slightly different take on the series, and the 2020 game was released near the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns (and when the console install base was higher), which may explain the drop.

The next biggest new release is F1 23 from EA. It's a disappointing launch for the official racing game, with sales down almost 47% compared with what F1 22 managed over the same period.

Just under 65% of F1 23's sales were on PS5, with just over 22.5% on Xbox Series S and X and 12.5% on PS4. PC accounted for just 0.3% of sales.

The next notable new game in the June charts is Street Fighter 6 at No.9. Over 51% of sales for Capcom's fighting game was on PS5, with 28% on PC, 12% on Xbox Series S and X and almost 9% on PS4.

Looking purely at those four new releases, 80% of sales came from digital download stores. Obviously, that does fluctuate quite a bit depending on the game, with Diablo 4 at one end of the spectrum and Final Fantasy 16 at the other. In fact, across Europe, Final Fantasy was bought primarily via physical retail stores.

In terms of purely physical retail sales, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just about held Diablo 4 off from the No.1 position.

Over in hardware, just 500,700 games consoles were sold across tracked European markets last month, which is up 33% over last June.

This is due to a spike in sales of PlayStation 5 (up 116%), while Switch sales are down slightly (-2.3%) and Xbox Series S and X sales are basically flat (sales down 0.8%).

PS5 reclaims its spot as Europe's No.1 console, having had to settle for second place last month due to the success of Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Over in accessories, Sony's DualSense controller is No.1, with sales up 6.6% over last year. Then it's the Xbox Wireless controller, which saw a huge jump in sales thanks to the launch of a special edition Starfield version.

Overall, 1.46 million accessories and toys-to-life products were sold, a rise of 5.4% over June 2022.

In terms of points cards, 1.3 million of these were sold last month (up 3.4% year-on-year), and it's still the PlayStation Store Top-Up cards at No.1.

European GSD June 2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)

Position Title
1 Diablo 4 (Activision Blizzard)
2 Final Fantasy 16 (Square Enix)
3 FIFA 23 (EA)
4 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
5 Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
6 F1 23 (EA)
7 Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
8 Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
9 Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)
10 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard)
* Digital data unavailable

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/european- ... hly-charts

I wonder what brought down sales of F1 this year, though I did see the melodramatic trailer and I thought it looked ridiculous. This kind of happened to Sony on PS2 though, didn't it - F1 went from being massive on PS1 to just another annual release on PS2, though maybe the popularity of F1 was also waning at the time.

The real life F1 this year is total dogshit with one team on course to win every single race this year. People will be so bored with it and don't want a game that replicates that boredom.