European Gaming Market Sees Strong Sales from Xbox, Sony, Nintendo, and Star Wars

During April, a total of 10.4 million PC and console games were sold across Europe, representing a 5.3% decrease compared to the same period in 2022. This data is based on GSD reports, which track physical game sales in major European markets and digital sales from leading publishers. Detailed information can be found at the end of the article. The top-selling game in April was Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which outsold FIFA 23 to claim the number one spot, despite being available for only a few days when the data was collected. This new Star Wars game had a strong launch, with sales increasing by almost 6% compared to its predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, released in November 2019. Notably, 55% of Survivor's sales were digital, whereas Fallen Order had 35% digital sales, highlighting the growth of digital sales for single-player games in Europe during the pandemic. Another significant release in April was Dead Island 2, which debuted at number three. Although it has been a long time since the original Dead Island, and comparative numbers are not available, the game appears to have performed well. Its sales were about a third lower than the remake of Resident Evil 4, which was released in March and is part of a more established series. Despite the success of these new games, they did not quite match the performance of last year's major release, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The next highest-performing new release in April was Minecraft Legends, which reached number 19 in its debut month. The release of a special edition console at the end of the month, ahead of the new Zelda game Tears of the Kingdom, contributed to a boost in Nintendo Switch sales. In terms of hardware sales, console sales across selected markets increased by nearly 58% compared to April last year, with all three major platforms performing strongly. PS5 sales were up 144% over April last year, making it the best-selling platform of the month, while Nintendo Switch sales rose by nearly 38%, and Xbox Series S and X sales increased by over 19%. However, compared to March, only Nintendo Switch sales saw a month-on-month increase, partly due to the release of the special edition console. Sales of accessories and other add-on products grew by 11% over April last year, with over 1.2 million products sold. The PS5 DualSense controller was the top-selling accessory, followed by the Xbox Series Wireless Controller. Finally, sales of points cards increased by 10% over April 2022 to 1.14 million units, with PlayStation Store, Roblox, and Steam Wallet cards being the top performers. The GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies include Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group, Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvellous Games, Microids, Microsoft, Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Notable absentees include Nintendo and 505 Games, as well as smaller studios. Digital data covers games sold in various European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Physical data includes all games sold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Console hardware sales cover Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, while accessories sales cover the same markets, excluding Switzerland.