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European PC and console game sales rose 1% in 2024 | VGC

Sales of PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch dropped 21% in Europe last year…

www.videogameschronicle.com

European PC and console game sales rose 1% in 2024​

SALES OF PS5, XBOX SERIES X/S AND NINTENDO SWITCH DROPPED 21% IN EUROPE LAST YEAR



15TH JAN 2025 / 3:30 PM
Posted by Christopher Dring

SOFTWARE

188.1 million PC and console games were sold across Europe in 2024, a rise of 1% over the year before.
This is all based on official games data supplied by GSD. 131.6 million games were sold via digital download stores, a rise of 15% over the previous 12 months, while 56.5 million games were sold via physical retail outlets, a drop of 22%.

EA Sports FC 25 was the best-selling game of the year, which will come as little surprise to anyone who follows European game sales. However, it’s a slightly softer launch this year, with EA Sports FC 25’s sales down 5% compared to what FC 24 managed during the same period.

Call of Duty reclaimed its position as Europe’s second biggest video game (2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 only managed No.4). Sales of last year’s game, Black Ops 6, were 9% higher than what Modern Warfare 3 achieved in 2023. And that’s despite the fact that the new game was made available within the Xbox Game Pass subscription service (and those downloads are not tracked here).

It was a quiet year for new releases all round, with only six new games in the top 20 for 2024 (last year, there were 10). In fact, sales of new releases were down 21% in 2024 compared with new releases in 2023.

In total, new releases accounted for 27% of games sold last year, vs 34% in 2023.

Outside of FIFA and Call of Duty, the best-selling new game of the year was Helldivers 2. The surprise hit from PlayStation made it to No.6 in the charts overall. In fact, many of the best-selling new games came as a surprise, with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (No.13 overall) and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (No.15), coming out ahead of big franchise games such as Star Wars Outlaws (No.47), Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (No.49) and Dragon Age: The Veilguard (No.67).

When it comes to older games, there were a few notable strong performances. An aggressive €1 deal saw Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 race up the charts to No.8. Strong promotions for EA’s It Takes Two helped the co-op game rise to No.9 this year (sales up 39% over 2023). Elden Ring rose to No.11 with a 46% sales jump thanks to its new Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

Meanwhile the release of the Fallout TV series, plus some strong discounting, resulted in Fallout 4 rising 183% in sales and reaching No.19.

HARDWARE

Over in hardware, it was a tough year for the console market, with sales of games consoles down 21% year-on-year. PS5 was the best-selling platform across tracked markets but sales fell 20%. Nintendo Switch sales were down 15%, while Xbox Series X/S sales dropped 48%. The console space had a tough year with a lack of major releases, plus the fact the Switch was in its eighth year on sale.

​

OFFICIAL EUROPEAN TOP 20 VIDEO GAMES​

1. EA Sports FC 25 (EA)
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Activision Blizzard)
3. EA Sports FC 24 (EA)
4. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
5. Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
6. Helldivers 2 (Sony)
7. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
8. The Crew 2 (Ubisoft)
9. It Takes Two (EA)
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)
11. Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
12. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
13. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (Bandai Namco)
14. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
15. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Focus)
16. Need for Speed: Heat (EA)
17. Super Mario Bros Wonder (Nintendo)*
18. Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo)*
19. Fallout 4 (Bethesda)
20. Metro Exodus (Plaion)

* Digital sales not included

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Very odd to see some of these games selling so much more than FF7:R

Makes no sense to me, was FF never popular in Europe?

 

[PauloRoberto]

Very odd to see some of these games selling so much more than FF7:R

Makes no sense to me, was FF never popular in Europe?

IMHO FF lost a lot of its global popularity after FF XIII (and not not because it's a multiplat release... it's because it is a shitty game).

 

[Vlodril]

Helldivers 2 did really good. Ps5 sales not as much but since they keep trying to keep the price the same (or raise it) well they deserve it.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

IMHO FF lost a lot of its global popularity after FF XIII (and not not because it's a multiplat release... it's because it is a shitty game).

That’s a damn shame because FF7R is an awesome game

 

[DenchDeckard]

Very odd to see some of these games selling so much more than FF7:R

Makes no sense to me, was FF never popular in Europe?

Yeah, its now pretty obvious the game completely flopped on PS5. Such a shame as I hear it is very good. I have it pre ordered on PC but I don't think it will perform better on PC as it has missed the launch hype.

 

[SweetTooth]

Helldivers 2 did really good. Ps5 sales not as much but since they keep trying to keep the price the same (or raise it) well they deserve it.

Yeah being first place is bad now , I can bet that PS5 outsold both Switch and Xbox combined

 

[Woopah]

Relieved we are still getting Europe sales!

Xbox hardware sales are in free fall but the switch drop was a lot less than I expected. Must have had a good holiday.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Yeah, its now pretty obvious the game completely flopped on PS5. Such a shame as I hear it is very good. I have it pre ordered on PC but I don't think it will perform better on PC as it has missed the launch hype.

It sold like 3 million in the first month, that’s not a flop, sales must have been very skewed to NA

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

while Xbox Series X/S sales dropped 48%.

No wonder why the series is out of stock; they can't meet 50% of the demand.

 

[SlimySnake]

Sales being down 20% in just the fourth year isnt good.

I would like to see the drop in sales for 2017.

 

[Vlodril]

Yeah being first place is bad now , I can bet that PS5 outsold both Switch and Xbox combined

They are doing really well against a dead system (xbox) and someone in the retirement home (switch). -20% is not insubstantial. They need to drop the price but since they have no competition they don't feel the need to. They try to get as much profit as possible from the user (ps plus is insane in prices now, games are 80 euro here etc etc). That is the goal of any company to be fair but this where competition actually helps the consumer.

 

[LordOcidax]

FF 7 Rebirth flopped really hard in Europe (And Japan), BTW MK8 at 12 without Digital sales, impressive.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Yeah being first place is bad now , I can bet that PS5 outsold both Switch and Xbox combined

Now imagine that the xbox sold 1, the switch sold 5 and the ps5 sold 12 units in total!!

YAY, I'm number 1!!!

 

[Mibu no ookami]

FF7 Rebirth was doomed by a few things

1. The limited sales of FF7 Remake
2. The limited userbase on PS5
3. The excitement post FF7 Remake is limited
4. It's still not the full game

FF7 Rebirth probably needed a PS4 release more than anything else, but Final Fantasy is a lost franchise with no identity. Many core Final Fantasy fans like myself have been checked out for years now and Square is really doing nothing to bring us back to the table.

They'll be wise to bring the FF7 Remake trilogy across all platforms with decent pricing when all is said and done.

PS5, Switch 2, XBS, PC, PS6. But even being multiplatform won't save it.

20% is pretty much in line with what Sony was expecting. Looks like they're probably going to hit their fiscal year forecast give or take a really bad Q4. Doesn't seem to be off to a great start, but Monster Hunter Wilds might change that.

 

[LordOcidax]

Now imagine that the xbox sold 1, the switch sold 5 and the ps5 sold 12 units in total!!

YAY, I'm number 1!!!

2023 was the peak year for the PS5, now is going downhill really fast.

 

[onnextflix5]

Dam 48%, what will be Like next year. Surly if it carries on like this, they will have to bow out of the console space, next gen consoles will very interesting, feel like both Sony and Microsoft will bring forward their releases as sales decline faster then expected, hardware innovation will be key, something Microsoft has very poor at for a long time, they couldn’t be bothered to update the controller even.

 

[Woopah]

Yeah being first place is bad now , I can bet that PS5 outsold both Switch and Xbox combined

Do you now agree with me that Chris hasn't stopped reporting hardware due to Switch sales?

Sales being down 20% in just the fourth year isnt good.

I would like to see the drop in sales for 2017.

Not sure about Europe, but in the US PS4 was up 4.6% YoY in 2017.

Very hard for PS5 to replicate that, since the price isn't going down and 2023 was very high due to the end of shortages.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Now imagine that the xbox sold 1, the switch sold 5 and the ps5 sold 12 units in total!!

YAY, I'm number 1!!!

If you need to reduce it this far to not sound so bad.

 

[SlimySnake]

Do you now agree with me that Chris hasn't stopped reporting hardware due to Switch sales?

Not sure about Europe, but in the US PS4 was up 4.6% YoY in 2017.

Very hard for PS5 to replicate that, since the price isn't going down and 2023 was very high due to the end of shortages.

it was like 2 million below the PS4 worldwide total back in November. I dont know. With the Xbox literally dying and refusing to sell, and Nintendo refusing to release Switch 2, i wouldve expected Sony to outdo PS4 numbers. Especially coming off of the massive success of PS4.

it will sell 100 million so it will be a massive success for Sony, but I wonder why they havent been able to reach into the Xbox pie.

 

[kazuyamishima]

The PS4 was up YoY in 2017 thanks to the €199 bundles, the cheapest price for Holidays 2024 was €375.

Wages haven’t increased nowhere near 2X since 2017.

Also 2023 was up about 177% up, so 20% down is not bad.

 

[Klayzer]

I wonder why they havent been able to reach into the Xbox pie

Probably offset, by a number of former Xbox users picking PC, instead of PlayStation. My guess at least.

 

[Fake]

Dragon Ball and HL doing great.

 

[Horseganador]

	2023	2024
Total	7.4	5,85
PS5	4.6	3,68
XBS	0,55	0.29
NSW	2.25	1.91

PS5 sold almost twice as much as Switch and 12:1 compared to Xbox.

 

[drganon]

Now imagine that the xbox sold 1, the switch sold 5 and the ps5 sold 12 units in total!!

YAY, I'm number 1!!!

Now imagine you had a brain.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Very odd to see some of these games selling so much more than FF7:R

Makes no sense to me, was FF never popular in Europe?

JRPGs were late coming to Europe, I think FF7 was the first Square RPG we got

 

[DenchDeckard]

If you need to reduce it this far to not sound so bad.

I was just trying to highlight how it can be pretty silly to congratulate number 1 when your against a system that is dead and another that is about to be replaced.

When switch 2 is destroying PS5 / Pro in sales I guess he will be silent.

 

[jm89]

2023 was the year ps5 stock was finally resolved in europe.

Europe did big numbers during the first few months of that year. I think sony broke some records for shipments for q4 in that year, first holiday it was fully in stock in europe aswell.

Right now price is hurting them. Can't believe they still won't do a permanent price cut.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I was just trying to highlight how it can be pretty silly to congratulate number 1 when your against a system that is dead and another that is about to be replaced.

When switch 2 is destroying PS5 / Pro in sales I guess he will be silent.

People did the same when Switch was doing that to PS4/XB1 as they were winding down.

Par for the course.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

"I doubt Sony are happy here"

"lines up with most industry analyst have said" (the one analyst named Phil Spencer?)

"long term is worrying" (CONSOLES ARE DYING!!)

I was just trying to highlight how it can be pretty silly to congratulate number 1 when your against a system that is dead and another that is about to be replaced.

When switch 2 is destroying PS5 / Pro in sales I guess he will be silent.

Well yeah, PS5's had some issues with Europe past year that only price sales promotions could solve. But some people are ignoring they were up 177% in 2023, and are exaggerating the sales drop for PS5 almost as if to suggest it's a drop similar to Xbox.

The same Xbox that was already down 18% in 2023 compared to 2022, and IIRC was down in 2022 vs. 2021. I'm a bit surprised and oddly impressed how far they can drop YOY in Europe.

TBF to Nintendo, they seem to be holding well in Europe and Japan. I guess the only major market where there was a notable drop, is the US. But I'm going off an assumption there.

it was like 2 million below the PS4 worldwide total back in November. I dont know. With the Xbox literally dying and refusing to sell, and Nintendo refusing to release Switch 2, i wouldve expected Sony to outdo PS4 numbers. Especially coming off of the massive success of PS4.

it will sell 100 million so it will be a massive success for Sony, but I wonder why they havent been able to reach into the Xbox pie.

Almost as if PC might be picking up more of those Xbot xpats than SIE want to admit. That, or more PS4 owners just choosing to hold on longer to that system.

Likely a combination of both.

 

[Luminoth-4545]

2024 GSD European Hardware, no data for November and December is disappointing. Considering PS5 was down 16% in the first half followed by a relatively bad July, August and October i'd say 2024's November and December were very good to only be 20% down by years end. Switch did well to only lose 15% and XBS had an utterly awful 2024.

Month	Playstation 5	Xbox Series	Switch	Overall	Overall Units Sold
January	moderate increase	minor decline	big decline	-1%	475,000
February	-2%	-47%	-7%	-14%	474,000
March	-31%	less than -31%	less than -31%	-27%	317,000
April	big decline	big decline	big decline	-47%	242,000
May	big decline	big decline	biggest decline	-40%	311,000
June	-10%	more than -10%	more than -10%	-24%	300,000
First Half	-16%	-37%	-32%	-24%	2,230,000
July	-56%	-42%	-29%	-46%	263,000
August	-50%	-29%	-25%	-42%	301,000
September	-17%	-58%	+1.5%	-18%	335,000
October	-29%	-49%	-10%	-26%	422,000
November	?	?	?	?	?
December	?	?	?	?	?
Full Year	-20%	-48%	-15%	-21%	?

 

[Felessan]

Very odd to see some of these games selling so much more than FF7:R

Makes no sense to me, was FF never popular in Europe?

It a unit, not dollar sales
A lot of games in the list sold at dirt cheap prices

 

[Kvally]

RIP consoles!

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Very odd to see some of these games selling so much more than FF7:R

Makes no sense to me, was FF never popular in Europe?

FFXIII started the downfall. The first version of XIV did nothing as well. FFXV was even worse but had a HUGE marketing campaign and ended up an even worse game.

Coming back from all that is not an easy feat.

 

[jm89]

RIP xbox consoles!

FTFY

 

[Horseganador]

Trying to belittle the success of the PS5 is absurd. It is by far the best-selling model. The fact that it has dropped compared to last year is normal. There were record numbers because stock has finally returned to normal.

 

[Unknown?]

Trying to belittle the success of the PS5 is absurd. It is by far the best-selling model. The fact that it has dropped compared to last year is normal. There were record numbers because stock has finally returned to normal.

Ya 2023 was record beating, this year it's still abnormally high.

 

[mayham2199]

it will sell 100 million so it will be a massive success for Sony, but I wonder why they havent been able to reach into the Xbox pie.

This is going to take time. Not that many people are just going to get rid of their system mid-gen and sell right now. Especially if they are tied into GP for a few more years. It's next gen when it's time to pickup that new console where I think Xbox is going to see their sales crater even more. Even at the begging of this gen I think Sony said they had 30% all new users.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Trying to belittle the success of the PS5 is absurd. It is by far the best-selling model. The fact that it has dropped compared to last year is normal. There were record numbers because stock has finally returned to normal.

It's also going to have more big titles released this year as well. If GTAVI alone releases it's going to move millions.

Also...a console peaking on year 3 or 4 is the typical. I also don't think we're gonna see steep decreases like in previous gens.

 

[Luminoth-4545]

	2023	2024
Total	7.4	5,85
PS5	4.6	3,68
XBS	0,55	0.29
NSW	2.25	1.91

PS5 sold almost twice as much as Switch and 12:1 compared to Xbox.

These are Sell-through estimates right?

We also should remember that for hardware GSD only tracks around 50% of the European Market (UK, Germany, Eastern Europe and some others are not tracked).

This lines up with Nintendo officially shipping 4.43 million to Europe in 2023, so you have to double these totals to get the ballpark sales for the entirety of Europe, I'd expect in their Q3 earnings release in a couple of weeks for them to have shipped around 3.8 million Switch's to Europe in 2024.

So this means in 2023 PS5 probably sold roughly 9.2 million and 7.4 million in 2024 and for XBS around 1.1 million and 600,000.

 

[ReBurn]

Consoles are doomed again

 

[DeepEnigma]

Trying to belittle the success of the PS5 is absurd. It is by far the best-selling model. The fact that it has dropped compared to last year is normal. There were record numbers because stock has finally returned to normal.

Stop adding factual context and nuance to the retardation cycles of every sales thread.

 

[Luminoth-4545]

Very odd to see some of these games selling so much more than FF7:R

Makes no sense to me, was FF never popular in Europe?

No PS4 or PC release hurt it.

 

[kruis]

FF7 Rebirth was doomed by a few things

1. The limited sales of FF7 Remake
2. The limited userbase on PS5
3. The excitement post FF7 Remake is limited
4. It's still not the full game

5. Anyone who didn't buy or finish FF7 Remake will have no reason to pick up the second game. FF7 part three is going to sell even less than FF7 Rebirth for the same reason. Splitting one story into multiple games is just dumb, it's gonna hurt sales.

 

[Unknown?]

	2023	2024
Total	7.4	5,85
PS5	4.6	3,68
XBS	0,55	0.29
NSW	2.25	1.91

PS5 sold almost twice as much as Switch and 12:1 compared to Xbox.

Holy crap, only 290k for the whole year for Xbox?!

 

[Insanemaelstrom]

	2023	2024
Total	7.4	5,85
PS5	4.6	3,68
XBS	0,55	0.29
NSW	2.25	1.91

PS5 sold almost twice as much as Switch and 12:1 compared to Xbox.

Yeah, Xbox console hardware is dead. And from what sales thread in US have shown so far, the situation is just marginally better in the US and worse worldwide. No wonder we are seeing them transition.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Holy crap, only 290k for the whole year for Xbox?!

 

[Gamer79]

Where are all these games for Xbox? They bought all those third parties but no games.

 

[Saber]

Elden Ring, Mario games, Dragonball, damn I'm just happy those even appear on the list. Seeing those people just buying sport games and COD infested with mtx is damn sad.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

FF7 Rebirth was doomed by a few things

1. The limited sales of FF7 Remake
2. The limited userbase on PS5
3. The excitement post FF7 Remake is limited
4. It's still not the full game

5. Anyone who didn't buy or finish FF7 Remake will have no reason to pick up the second game. FF7 part three is going to sell even less than FF7 Rebirth for the same reason. Splitting one story into multiple games is just dumb, it's gonna hurt sales.

6. Square Enix has milked the franchise with subpar releases, damaging the brand. FF7R was just a nostalgic ploy.