The sales figures for video games in October in Europe have fallen. Sales of console and PC games are down, but in reality hide a very good performance when we remember that Call of Duty was released in November this year compared to October last year.
The PS5 is selling like hotcakes and the Xboxes are in difficulty
Console sales represent an interesting indicator for knowing the notoriety of a brand, and unsurprisingly, it is Sony which dominates the market once again.
The PS5 is the best-selling console in Europe (United Kingdom and Germany not included). The figures show an increase of 143% compared to last year, driven by strong stocks and the release of Spider-Man. The Sony console is even +10% compared to September.
Nintendo Switch sales are down 20%, but the console is still in second place in console sales. It is the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S which take third place with sales down 52% year-on-year. So there doesn’t seem to have been any Forza Motorsport effect. As a reminder, despite the release of Starfield in September, sales of Xbox consoles were down 28% while those of the PS5 were up 175%.
Microsoft has not communicated its figures for a long time, but it is possible that Microsoft does not achieve the expected results. Even the number of Xbox Game Pass subscribers has not been updated since January 2022 when it was 25 million members. The analyst MauroNL3 confirms that Xbox is indeed in difficulty in Europe with a sales report of 7 PS5s sold for 1 Xbox in many markets.
EA successfully transitions from Fifa to EA Sports FC
10.21 million games for PC and consoles were sold in Europe according to GSD, data collected by Gameindustry. This represents a slight decrease of 2.3% from the previous year, but with one less Call of Duty this year, it’s actually a very good performance.
This data covers all games sold in digital form by most major game publishers in the euro zone as well as sales of physical games in all the main markets in the zone.
Without any big surprise, EA Sports FC 24 (see the test) finds itself at the top of the ranking, a position to which Electronic Arts is accustomed with its historic license during this period. Even if sales are down 10%, EA can be proud of having succeeded in launching its new franchise when we know that it was supported last year by the World Cup.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Spider-Man 2 are neck and neck, but Ubisoft’s game benefited from two additional weeks of sales. Difficult to say if the game’s performance meets the French publisher’s expectations, but we know that Mirage’s sales are more than 49% lower than those managed by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but 22% higher than those of Odyssey from 2018 and 6% higher than those of Assassin’s Creed Origins of 2017. The development of the game having undoubtedly taken less time due to the reduced score of the game, we imagine that Ubisoft is very satisfied with it.
As for Spider-Man 2 on PS5, sales are up almost 30% compared to Spider-Man 2018 and represent almost three times the sales of Spider-Man: Miles Morales 2020. Super Mario Bros. Wonder might have could place itself on the podium if its sales figures included dematerialized versions of the games, figures that Nintendo does not share.
Top 10 video game sales in October 2023 in Europe
- 1. EA Sports FC 24 (EA)
- 2. Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ubisoft)
- 3. Spider-Man 2 (Sony)
- 4. Super Mario Bros Wonder (Nintendo)*
- 5. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
- 6. Lords of the Fallen 2023 (CI Games)
- 7. Battlefield 2042 (EA)
- 8. Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
- 9. red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
- 10. It Takes Two (EA)
*Digital sales not counted.
