UK Monthly Charts: PS5 Sales Experience Significant Growth, While Game Sales Decline

According to the latest GSD data, a total of 2.24 million video games were sold in the UK during January. This represents a slight decline of 4.4% compared to the same period last year. The primary reason for this decrease is the absence of a major game release, such as Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which launched in January 2022. In contrast, FIFA 23 took the top spot, with sales surpassing those of FIFA 22 in January of the previous year. Additionally, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 achieved higher sales in January compared to the previous year, ranking second and fourth, respectively. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 secured the third position, performing better than its predecessor, Call of Duty: Vanguard, but experiencing a faster decline in sales compared to other titles in the series, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The Dead Space remake, released by EA, debuted at number six and had only been on sale for a few days when the data was collected. Notably, the game's launch occurred just six weeks after The Callisto Protocol, a similar game developed by some of the original Dead Space creators. Unfortunately, a comparison between the two games' launches is not possible due to the unavailability of digital data for The Callisto Protocol. However, the new IP had a stronger physical retail launch than the remake. Other notable new releases include Fire Emblem Engage at number 12, for which digital data is unavailable, and Forspoken at number 16. In terms of console sales, 125,000 units were sold in January, with the PS5 leading the way. PS5 sales increased by an impressive 98% compared to January of the previous year, when the console was in short supply. The God of War Ragnarok editions were a major contributor to Sony's success, accounting for 55% of PS5 sales in January. The standard PS5 bundle featuring God of War Ragnarok launched in November 2022, while the digital edition became available in January. This bundle has essentially replaced the Horizon Forbidden West official hardware bundles, which dominated sales between May and September of the previous year, representing around 43% of all PS5 hardware sales during that period. The Nintendo Switch ranked second in console sales but continued to experience a slowdown as it approaches its sixth anniversary. In January, 61% of Switch sales were for the OLED version, up from 39% in January 2022. The GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via various platforms, including Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies include Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, and many others. Notable absentees from the data include Nintendo and 505 Games, as well as smaller studios.