UK Gaming Market Sees Shift in October with Spider-Man and Mario Leading the Charge

Owing to a technical issue at the charting company, this month's physical game sales data is derived from GfK. Digital game sales in the UK for October totaled 1.6 million, representing a 24% decline from the previous year, according to GSD data. Conversely, GfK data indicates a slight increase of 8% in physical game sales, reaching 1.08 million units sold. The primary factor contributing to the overall decline is the absence of a major release like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which launched in October last year, whereas this year's Call of Duty title was released in November. Additionally, sales of the latest football game, EA Sports FC 24, experienced a 16% drop in its first week compared to FIFA 23 the previous year. This decline can be attributed to the fact that 2022's FIFA game coincided with the World Cup, leading to robust initial sales. The top-selling new game for the month was Sony's Spider-Man 2. Combining GfK and GSD sales data reveals that the first two weeks of sales for Spider-Man 2 were nearly 9% lower than the original Spider-Man in 2018 but 94% higher than Spider-Man: Miles Morales in 2020. In comparison to last year's significant PlayStation release, God of War Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2's first two weeks of sales were 2% higher. Notably, God of War Ragnarok was available on both PS4 and PS5, while Spider-Man 2 is exclusively a PS5 game. Following Spider-Man 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage secured the third position in digital sales and fourth in physical sales. The game's sales were 58% lower than Assassin's Creed Valhalla's opening four weeks in 2020. However, this was anticipated, as Assassin's Creed Mirage was billed as a smaller title with gameplay reminiscent of older series entries. Its first four weeks of sales closely mirrored those of Assassin's Creed Odyssey in 2018. Elsewhere, Super Mario Bros Wonder emerged as the third best-selling physical game of the month, although it did not appear in the digital charts due to Nintendo's policy of not sharing download figures. In terms of boxed sales alone, Super Mario Bros Wonder achieved the largest Mario launch on the Nintendo Switch, surpassing 2017's Super Mario Odyssey by 3,000 units and 2020's Super Mario 3D All-Stars by 13,000 units after two weeks. Including digital sales, it is likely the biggest Mario launch in UK history, a claim supported by Nintendo's announcement that it is the largest Super Mario game launch in Europe. Other new entries in the October charts include EA Sports UFC 5, which ranked fourth in digital sales and 33rd in physical, and Lords of the Fallen, which secured the fifth position in digital and 17th in physical sales. Sonic Superstars ranked 26th in digital and ninth in physical sales, with significantly higher sales in physical copies than digital downloads. Just outside the top ten, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 placed 11th in digital and 15th in physical sales. Red Dead Redemption also entered the physical charts at number ten, following the release of its boxed version for Nintendo Switch and PS4, after being initially available digitally in August. Console sales experienced a decline in October, with a 10% month-over-month drop to 176,022 devices sold, according to GfK figures. PS5 sales saw a slight 4% decline, despite being a strong month for the console, with 56% of PS5 sales attributed to the official EA Sports FC 24 hardware bundle and 6% to the Spider-Man 2 edition. The significant decline was observed in Xbox Series S and X sales, which plummeted by 33%. This decline follows a strong September driven by the release of a new Xbox Series S model and the success of Starfield. Microsoft's platforms narrowly maintained their lead over Nintendo Switch, which ranked third but saw a 15% increase in sales, largely due to the launch of Super Mario Bros Wonder. However, the new Mario red OLED version of the console accounted for only 6.2% of Switch sales in the previous month. Over the last six months, PS5 has dominated with a 51% market share, driven by robust summer sales. Xbox's market share has dropped to 23%, while Nintendo Switch has fallen to 25%. GfK's Dorian Bloch notes that there is significant competition in the final three months of the year, which typically accounts for over half of all console sales annually. In the accessories sector, 583,869 add-on products were sold in October, according to GfK panel data, representing a 12% decline from September and a 15% drop from the previous year. The top five accessories remain unchanged, with the white DualSense controller at number one, followed by the Carbon Black Xbox Wireless Controller, the Midnight Black DualSense, Xbox's Robot White, and Pulse Red Wireless Controllers. GSD digital data encompasses games from participating companies sold via PC digital stores, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Eshop, including major companies like Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, and Electronic Arts, with notable exceptions including Nintendo and 505 Games.