In May, 11.6 million PC and console games were sold in European markets. Compared to the same five-week period in 2023, this is a decrease of almost 17%.
This is GSD data, which tracks all digital game sales from most major publishers (Nintendo data is missing) and physical game sales in all major European markets.
The main reason for the drop is that last year we had the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was a big hit. To put that into context, Zelda alone sold more copies in May 2023 than the entire dozen sold in May 2024. Hogwarts Legacy also came out on PS4 and Xbox One last year, which was also strong.
EA Sports FC 24 was the best-selling game in May this year, followed by Grand Theft Auto 5. F1 2024 races for 3rd place, coming out a good two weeks early this year. However, the Codemasters game got off to a slow start, with market sales down 35% from last year’s game.
The PC version of Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut pushes the PlayStation game to 4th place. Meanwhile, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door comes in at No. 5. Nintendo doesn’t share digital sales with charts, so the game may have actually charted higher.
When looking at similar games, sales of New Paper Mario were down 8% compared to the opening two weeks of last year’s Super Mario RPG, and down 8.5% from 2020’s Paper Mario: The Origami King.
The only other new game in the Top 100 was Homeworld 3 (#76).
Finally, Star Wars-related pricing activity sent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order back into the top ten.
Console sales plummet on tough Switch comparisons
Across all tracked markets, 311,000 gaming consoles were sold in May 2023, down 40% from the same period last year.
All console platforms saw a big drop, with the Nintendo Switch seeing the biggest drop. Again, this is because Zelda and the special Zelda edition of the OLED Switch came out last May.
Meanwhile, accessory sales fell 25% over the same five-week period, again led by the DualSense controller (which actually saw a year-over-year increase in sales).
Top 10 European GSD May 2024 (Digital + Physical)
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | EA Sports FC 24 (EA) |
| 2 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
| 3 | F1 24 (Codemasters) |
| 4 | Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut (Sony) |
| 5 | Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Nintendo) |
| 6 | Helldivers 2 (Sony) |
| 7 | Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) |
| 8 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 9 | Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (EA) |
| 10 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard) |
* Digital data not available
GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold through Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies include Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Saber Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvelous Games, Microids, Microsoft (including Bethesda), Milestone, Nacon , Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Tencent, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Nintendo and 505 Games are notable absences alongside smaller studios.
Digital data includes games sold in 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, but only those 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. Accessory sales cover the same markets, but do not include Switzerland.