In May, 11.6 million PC and console games were sold in European markets. Compared to the same five-week period in 2023, this is a decrease of almost 17%.
These are figures from GSD, which tracks 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 that last year we had the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was a huge hit. To put it into context, Zelda alone sold more copies in May 2023 than the entire Top Ten sold in May 2024. Last year also saw the release of Hogwarts Legacy on PS4 and Xbox One, which also performed strongly.
The best-selling game in May this year was EA Sports FC 24, followed by Grand Theft Auto 5. F1 2024 comes in at number 3, launching just over two weeks earlier this year. However, the Codemasters game is off to a slow start, with launch sales down 35% from last year’s game.
The PC release of Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut takes the PlayStation game to No. 4. Meanwhile, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door comes in at No. 5. Nintendo doesn’t share digital sales with the charts, so the game may actually have been higher.
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 (No. 76).
Finally, Star Wars-related awards activity had sent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order back into the Top Ten.
Console sales fall sharply after tough Switch comparisons
In the markets tracked, 311,000 gaming consoles were sold in May 2023, which is a decline of 40% compared to the same period the year before.
All console platforms saw a big drop, with the Nintendo Switch seeing the biggest drop. Again, this is because last May saw the release of Zelda and a special Zelda edition of the OLED Switch model.
Meanwhile, accessory sales fell 25% over the same five-week period, again led by the DualSense controller (which actually saw sales increase year over 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: The Millennial Door (Nintendo) |
| 6 | Helldivers 2 (Sony) |
| 7 | Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) |
| 8 | 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. The main participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Saber Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvelous 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 the 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 the United Kingdom.
Console hardware sales include Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Sales of accessories cover the same markets, but do not include Switzerland.