According to GSD data, almost 80 million PC and console games were sold in Europe in the first six months of 2024.
That’s a 1.6% unit sales decline from the start of 2023, a strong showing given the relatively weaker release for the first half of this year compared to the year before. The first half of 2023 saw major releases including Hogwarts Legacy, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
In comparison, only two of the top ten best-selling games of 2024 (so far) were released in 2024, Helldivers 2 (at #2) and The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered (at #10).
Note: Palworld data is missing, which would probably also be a key vendor.
Many of these games had a lower selling price compared to AAA releases from years past, so revenue will be lower. Looking at the UK market in particular, ERA says gaming revenue fell by 30% in the first half of the year.
As for European game sales in June, 11.3 million video games were sold last month, down 19%. June last year was a particularly big one for video games, with major releases including Diablo 4 and Final Fantasy 16. There were no big standalone releases this year.
One positive comparison to last June comes in the form of a football match. EA Sports FC24 was #1 in June with sales 7% higher than FIFA 24 managed in the comparable period. This year’s match will benefit from the European Championships held in Germany during June and July.
Elden Ring jumped into second place, enjoying a huge increase in sales thanks to its new DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree. Month-over-month sales of the base game jumped 454%.
The top rated new game was Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (only physical sales counted, no digital). This game very narrowly misses out on being the fastest selling Nintendo Switch game this year by just 4,000 units. It was beaten by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, but came out before Showtime’s Princess Peach and Mario vs Donkey Kong. In terms of opening sales, it managed almost a third of what Luigi’s Mansion 3 did in its first week in 2019.
GSD data tracks physical sales in all major European markets and digital sales from most major publishers in all European markets. The biggest missing company from the digital data is Nintendo.
The console market faces tough comparisons
Just over 300,000 game consoles were sold in Europe in June in the markets covered (some countries are missing, including Germany and the UK. UK figures are available here). Compared to the same four-week period in 2023, this is a decrease of 24%. All three platforms are down, though the PS5 is proving the most resilient with a 10% year-over-year sales decline in June.
In the first six months of the year, the game console hardware market fell 24% with 2.2 million units sold. PS5 is down 16%, Switch is down 32% and Xbox Series S and X is down 37%. The console market is struggling with strong 2023 numbers, a weaker software lineup and an aging Nintendo Switch platform.
In terms of accessories and peripherals, 1.1 million products were sold in the monitored European markets in June. Over the same four-week period in 2023, sales were down 7.3%. The market was boosted by the DualSense controller, which was discounted at retail during the month.
Eight million accessories were sold in the first six months of the year, down 8.4% from 2023.
Top 10 European GSDs H1 2024 (Digital + Physical)
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | EA Sports FC 24 (EA) |
| 2 | Helldivers 2 (Sony) |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
| 4 | Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) |
| 5 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 6 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard) |
| 7 | Fallout 4 (Bethesda) |
| 8 | It Takes Two (EA) |
| 9 | Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft) |
| 10 | The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered (Sony) |
* Digital data not available
Top 10 European GSDs June 2024 (Digital + Physical)
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | EA Sports FC 24 (EA) |
| 2 | Elden Ring (Bandai Namco) |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
| 4 | Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (2K Games) |
| 5 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 6 | Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) |
| 7 | Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (Nintendo)* |
| 8 | F1 24 (EA) |
| 9 | Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar) |
| 10 | NBA 2K24 (2K games) |
* 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.