Video game and console sales jump in Europe during August | UK Monthly Charts

10.7 million video games from AAA publishers were sold across Europe last month, GSD data reports.

That’s a rise of nearly 29% over August last year. It’s an impressive result, especially as the big game of August – Baldur’s Gate 3 – is not counted in this data as publisher Larian is not part of the GSD panel.

Instead, FIFA 23 is No.1. The football game saw a particularly big spike in sales on Nintendo Switch, as the game was on offer via the Nintendo eShop.

EA’s game is very closely followed by Grand Theft Auto 5, which saw a 40% jump in sales (compared to August 2022) primarily due to promotional activity on PlayStation 5.

If we look at games by single platform, the best-selling game of the month was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom followed by Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. It was another solid month for Nintendo across Europe.

The highest charting new game was Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, which is just behind Hogwarts Legacy at No.4. The From Software game comfortably sold best in the UK, with sales almost double that of Germany and three times bigger than France.

Back in the charts for August is Red Dead Redemption at No.11. The game bounced back into the charts after it was released on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The PS4 version accounted for almost two thirds of the sales.

Just missing out on the Top 20 for the month was Quake 2, which received an updated release (with extra levels) across all platforms. The game jumps to No.23.

In terms of consoles, not all markets are tracked by GSD (Germany and UK are the notable absentees), but in terms of the countries that are tracked, hardware sales are up 67% compared with August last year. This is primarily down to PlayStation 5, which saw an impressive sales jump of 197% over last August. There were severe stock shortages for PS5 across Europe last year.

Nintendo Switch continues to do remarkably well considering the age of the console. Sales were up just under 1% compared with August last year. However, Xbox Series S and X struggled, with sales down nearly 12% compared with the same period in 2022. This will likely be a different story come September, with a new hardware SKU and the launch of Starfield expected to boost sales.

Finally, accessories sales were up 36% in August year-on-year. This is due to strong sales of the PS5 DualSense controller, which saw a 170% sales spike due to improved PS5 console sales.

European GSD August 2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)

* 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, 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.