In the first six months of 2024, nearly 80 million PC and console games were sold in Europe, according to GSD data. The top three best-selling games were EA FC 24, Helldivers 2, and GTA 5, which was released 11 years ago. This represents a 1.6% decrease in unit sales compared to the beginning of 2023, which is a strong result considering the weaker lineup of releases in the first half of this year compared to the previous year.
The first half of 2023 saw major releases such as Hogwarts Legacy, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. In comparison, only two games in the top 10 best-selling games of 2024 (so far) were released in 2024. It’s worth noting that Palworld, one of the most popular games of the year, is not included in this ranking.
Many of these games had lower selling prices compared to AAA releases in previous years, resulting in lower revenues. Specifically looking at the British market, ERA reports that game revenues have decreased by 30% in the first half of the year. In terms of European game sales in June, 11.3 million video games were sold last month, representing a 19% decrease. June of last year was particularly important for video games, with major releases such as Diablo 4 and Final Fantasy 16. This year did not have a major release.
GSD data tracks physical sales across all major European markets and digital sales from most major publishers across all European markets. The biggest company missing from digital data is Nintendo. In terms of the number of consoles sold, GDS shows that just over 300,000 gaming consoles were sold in Europe in June (note that certain important countries like Germany or the UK are missing).
For the first six months of the year, the gaming console hardware market decreased by 24%, with 2.2 million units sold. PS5 decreased by 16%, Switch by 32%, and Xbox Series S and X by 37%. The console market is facing challenges when considering the strong figures for 2023, a weaker game lineup, and the aging Nintendo Switch platform. As for accessories and peripherals, 1.1 million products were sold in the European markets tracked in June. For the same four-week period in 2023, sales decreased by 7.3%. The market was boosted by the discounted DualSense controller in stores during the month. For the first six months of the year, eight million accessories were sold, a decrease of 8.4% compared to 2023.