V Rising Claims Top Spot in UK Charts for May

The vampire-themed survival game V Rising has debuted at the top of the UK charts for May, following its transition from Early Access. The game received widespread critical acclaim upon its release and is set to launch on PS5 on June 11. However, the overall gaming market experienced a downturn, with a 21% drop in sales compared to the same period last year, totaling 1.85 million games sold. The previous year's market was bolstered by the releases of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Hogwarts Legacy. In other chart movements, Fallout 4 managed to cling to a top-five spot at number four, while Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut saw a significant surge in sales following its PC release, landing at number six. The game's success marks PlayStation Studios' second-largest PC release and its biggest internally developed PC launch to date. After two weeks, it has narrowly outsold Spider-Man: Remastered, which was released in 2022. The remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for Nintendo Switch also made a respectable debut, with physical sales exceeding those of Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Origami King from previous years. The console market continued to experience a decline, with just under 65,000 consoles sold in the UK during May, representing a 10% drop from the previous month and a nearly 33% decrease from the same period last year. The PS5 maintained its position as the top-selling format, despite a 13% decline in sales compared to April. The main factor contributing to the year-on-year decline is the Nintendo Switch, which saw impressive console sales in May 2023 following the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Switch sales have also decreased by 9% compared to the previous month. The Xbox Series S and X took third place, with sales down 9% month-over-month. In the accessories market, 475,429 products were sold in the UK during May, down 12.6% from April but up 5% from the same period last year. The top-selling accessories were the White and Midnight Black PS5 DualSense controllers, with the PlayStation Portal Remote Player re-entering the top ten at number three. Overall, the UK gaming market has seen a significant decline in revenue this year, although accessory sales have increased by 21% year-to-date. According to GfK's games boss, Dorian Bloch, 'PC gaming accessories, driven by mice, keyboards, and headsets, have seen an 8% increase, while console gaming accessories have risen by 26%.' The main growth categories for console accessories are controllers, which have seen a 22% increase due to the popularity of PS5 joypads, including DualSense, DualSense Edge, and PlayStation Portal. Console gaming headsets have also experienced a 17% increase, driven by PlayStation headsets and Sony's existing Pulse 3D products, particularly the Pulse 3D Elite, which has driven the Pulse range and increased Sony's revenue share.