In May, 11.6 million PC and console games were sold in European markets, a decrease of almost 17% compared to the same five-week period in 2023.
These are GSD figures that capture all digital game sales from most major publishers (Nintendo data is missing) as well as physical game sales in all major European markets.
The main reason for the decline is the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom last year, which was a huge success. To put it in context, Zelda alone sold more copies in May 2023 than the entire top ten in May 2024. Last year also saw the release of Hogwarts Legacy for PS4 and Xbox One, which was also a strong success.
The best-selling game in May this year was EA Sports FC 24, followed by Grand Theft Auto 5. In third place is F1 2024, which is being released a good two weeks earlier this year. However, Codemasters’ game had a slow start, with launch sales 35% lower than last year’s game.
The PC version of Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut pushes the PlayStation game up to number 4. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, meanwhile, lands at number 5. Nintendo does not share digital sales with the charts, so the game may actually have landed higher.
When looking at similar games, sales of the new Paper Mario are down 8% compared to the first two weeks of last year’s Super Mario RPG and 8.5% lower than 2020’s Paper Mario: The Origami King.
The only other new game in the top 100 was Homeworld 3 (76th place).
Finally, Star Wars-related pricing activity pushed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order back into the top ten.
Console sales drop sharply after tough Switch comparisons
In the markets observed, 311,000 game consoles were sold in May 2023, a decrease of 40% compared to the same period last year.
There were big drops across all console platforms, with Nintendo Switch suffering the biggest drop. This is again due to the release of Zelda and a special Zelda edition of the OLED Switch model last May.
At the same time, accessory sales fell by 25% over the same five-week period, with the main reason for this again being the DualSense controller (sales of which actually increased year-on-year).
European GSD May 2024 Top 10 (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: Gate to the Millennium (Nintendo) |
| 6 | Helldivers 2 (Sony) |
| 7 | Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) |
| 8th | 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’s digital data includes games from participating companies sold through Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies include 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, along with smaller studios.
The 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.
The physical data includes all games, but only those sold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Sales of console hardware cover Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Sales of accessories cover the same markets, but do not include Switzerland.