European game sales down just 1.6% during the first half of 2024 | European Monthly Charts
GSD data shows that the number of games sold remains strong despite a lack of major AAA launches
Just under 80 million PC and console games have been sold across Europe for the first six months of 2024, GSD data reveals.
That's a unit sales drop of 1.6% over the start of 2023, which is a strong result considering the comparatively weaker release slate for the first half of this year compared with 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.
By comparison, just two games in the Top Ten best-selling 2024 games (so far) have been released in 2024. Helldivers 2 (at No.2) and The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered (at No.10).
Note: Palworld data is missing, which would likely have been a key seller, too.
Many of these games had a lower selling price compared with the AAA releases of last years, so revenue will have been down more severel. Looking at the UK market in particular, ERA says that games revenue was down 30% over the first half of the year.
In terms of European game sales in June, 11.3 million video games were sold last month, which is a drop of 19%. June last year was a particularly big one for video games, with major releases including Diablo 4 and Final Fantasy 16. There wasn't a major standalone release this year.
One positive comparison with June last year comes in the form of the football game. EA Sports FC24 was No.1 in June, with sales 7% higher than what FIFA 24 managed during the comparable period. This year's game will have benefitted from the European Championships, which took place in Germany throughout June and July.
Jumping up to second place was Elden Ring, which enjoyed a huge sales increase on the back of its new DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree. Month-on-month, the base game's sales leapt 454%.
The highest charting new game was Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (only physical sales counted, no digital). The 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 ahead of Princess Peach Showtime and Mario vs Donkey Kong. In terms of launch sales, it's managed just under a third of what Luigi's Mansion 3 achieved during its opening 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.
Console market struggles with tough comparisons
Across tracked markets (missing certain countries, including Germany and UK. UK data is available here), just over 300,000 games consoles were sold across Europe in June. Compared to the same four-week period in 2023, that's a drop of 24%. All three platforms are down, although PS5 is proving the most resilient with a year-on-year sales drop of 10% in June.
For the first six months of the year, the games console hardware market is down 24% with 2.2 million units sold. PS5 is down 16%, Switch down 32% and Xbox Series S and X down 37%. The console market is struggling when put against strong 2023 numbers, a weaker software line-up and the ageing Nintendo Switch platform.
In terms of accessories and peripherals, 1.1 million products were sold across tracked European markets in June. For the same four-week period in 2023, sales are down 7.3%. The market was boosted by the DualSense controller, which was on discount at retail during the month.
For the first six months of the year, eight million accessories have been sold, a drop of 8.4% over 2023.
European GSD H1 2024 Top 10 (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 unavailable
European GSD June 2024 Top 10 (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 unavailable
GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Sabre Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvellous 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 the notable absentees, 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 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 United Kingdom.
Console hardware sales cover Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Accessories sales cover the same markets, but doesn't include Switzerland.