Black Friday video game sales down 15% | UK Boxed Charts

Sales of physical video games during the Black Friday week were down 15% compared to the same period the year before, GfK data reveals.

Software sales over Black Friday have been on the wane in recent years. Last year, Black Friday sales were down 10% over the year before.

Please note that this data does not include the digital sales that happened over Black Friday week. It also doesn't include console sales data. Both digital and hardware sales figures will be made available later.

The best-selling boxed game of the week was FIFA 23, with sales up 95%. The EA game was reduced and also included in hardware bundles. It will also have benefitted from the World Cup, which kicked off last week. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is back up to No.2 after sales rose 9%, despite the game not receiving a significant discount.

Last week's big new releases, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, fell down the charts this week. Violet is down to No.3, while Scarlet is down to No.6. Both games dropped 64% in sales week-on-week, which is a reasonable number for a Pokémon game. Last year's Pokémon titles dropped around 58% in their second week (and from a smaller base), while Pokémon Legends: Arceus, released in January this year, fell 72%. If fan disappointment over the game's technical performance is hurting sales, we're yet to see it in the figures.

Mario Kart 8: Deluxe jumps to No.5 after a 226% increase in sales. Nintendo's hugely popular racing game was last Black Friday's No.1 seller due to the launch of a Switch bundle. Once again, the game raced up the charts due to a similar Black Friday offer.

Another game that benefitted from Black Friday was Sonic Frontiers. The title only came out three weeks ago, but was reduced in price to just over £30 during Black Friday. As a result, the Sega platform game rose 203% in sales and is up to No.7.

Retail copies of Switch games performed very well over Black Friday. Nintendo Switch Sports (No.8) enjoyed a sales rise of 138%, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (No.10) is up 85% and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (No.11) jumped 426% -- the latter was part of a hardware bundle from Amazon.

LEGO games also performed well. LEGO Harry Potter Collection is at No.12 with sales up 174% (the game was reduced to around £15), while LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was just behind it at No.13 due to a £20 offer.

One of the biggest deals over Black Friday was for the Xbox Series S console, which was reduced by £60. However, as the console is digital-only, its popularity would have had no impact on these physical retail charts.

There are some new games in the Top 40. Just Dance 2023 Edition is at No.9 and launch sales are 173% bigger than what Just Dance 2022 managed. 83% of the Ubisoft game's sales were on Nintendo Switch, and it was included in some Switch bundles during the week.

Meanwhile, Evil West from Focus Home Interactive makes No.21.

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