UK Gaming Charts See Shift in October with Spider-Man and Super Mario on Top

Due to technical issues, this month's physical game sales data is based on GfK figures. Digital game sales in the UK reached 1.6 million in October, representing a 24% decline from the previous year, according to GSD data. On the other hand, physical game sales saw a slight increase of 8% to 1.08 million units sold, as per GfK data. The primary reason for the overall decline is the absence of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was released in October last year, whereas this year's Call of Duty was launched in November. Additionally, sales of this year's football game, EA Sports FC 24, were 16% lower than FIFA 23 in its first week, considering both GfK and GSD numbers. The best-selling new game of the month was Spider-Man 2 from Sony, with combined GfK and GSD sales showing a 9% decrease compared to the original Spider-Man in 2018, but a 94% increase over Spider-Man: Miles Morales in 2020. Compared to God of War Ragnarok, another major PlayStation game from last year, Spider-Man 2's first two weeks of sales were 2% higher. Assassin's Creed Mirage secured the second spot on the new game list, with sales 58% lower than Assassin's Creed Valhalla's opening four weeks in 2020. However, Mirage's sales were almost identical to those of Assassin's Creed Odyssey in 2018. Super Mario Bros Wonder was the third biggest physical game of the month but did not appear in the digital charts, as Nintendo does not share download figures. In terms of boxed sales alone, Super Mario Bros Wonder had the biggest Mario launch on Nintendo Switch, with 3,000 more sales after two weeks than Super Mario Odyssey in 2017 and 13,000 more than Super Mario 3D All-Stars in 2020. Including digital sales, it is likely the largest Mario launch in UK history. Other new entries in the charts include EA Sports UFC 5, Lords of the Fallen, and Sonic Superstars. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 narrowly missed the Top Ten, while Red Dead Redemption made the physical charts at No.10 due to the release of the boxed version for Nintendo Switch and PS4. Console sales experienced a slight decline in October, with a 10% drop to 176,022 devices sold, according to GfK figures. PS5 sales dipped 4%, but it was still a strong month for Sony's console, with 56% of PS5s sold in October being the official EA Sports FC 24 hardware bundle. The Spider-Man 2 edition of the console accounted for 6% of sales. Xbox Series S and X sales saw a significant decline of 33%, following a strong September due to the release of a new Xbox Series S model and the hit game Starfield. Microsoft's platforms narrowly remained ahead of Nintendo Switch, which saw a 15% increase in sales over the previous month, driven by the launch of Super Mario Bros Wonder. As revealed earlier, PS5 has held a 51% market share over the last six months, while Xbox's market share dropped to 23%, and Nintendo Switch fell to 25%. The accessories market saw a decline, with 583,869 add-on products sold in October, representing a 12% drop from September and a 15% decrease from the previous year. The top five accessories remained unchanged, with the white DualSense at No.1, followed by the Carbon Black Xbox Wireless Controller, Midnight Black DualSense, Xbox's Robot White, and Pulse Red Wireless Controller.