EA Sports FC 24 and GTA 5 top European charts in tough May | European Monthly Charts
F1 23 races in at No.3
11.6 million PC and console games were sold across European markets in May. Compared with the same five week period in 2023, that's a drop of nearly 17%.
This is GSD figures, which tracks all digital game sales from most major publishers (Nintendo data is absent), and physical game sales in all major European markets.
The main reason for the drop is that last year we had the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was a major 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 was also a strong performer.
The No.1 selling game in May this year was EA Sports FC 24, followed by Grand Theft Auto 5. F1 2024 races in at No.3, which launches a good two weeks earlier this year. However, the Codemasters game has got off to a slow start, with launch sales down 35% over last year's game.
The PC release of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut sends the PlayStation game up to No.4. Meanwhile, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door comes in at No.5. Nintendo does not share digital sales with the charts, so the game may have charted higher in reality.
Looking at similar games, the new Paper Mario's sales are down 8% compared with the opening 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 pricing activity had sent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order back into the Top Ten.
Console sales fall sharply on tough Switch comparisons
Across the tracked markets, 311,000 games consoles were sold in May 2023, which is a drop of 40% over the same period the year before.
All console platforms saw a big drop, with Nintendo Switch suffering the biggest fall. 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% for the same five-week period, once again led by the DualSense controller (which actually saw sales rise year-on-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 Thousand Year 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 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, 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 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.