Helldivers 2 drives UK March game sales up 26% | UK Monthly Charts

3.65 million PC and console games were sold across the UK during March, an impressive rise of 26% over the same period in 2023.

GSD data, which tracks all physical sales and digital sales from most major publishers, reveals that for a second consecutive month, Sony's Helldivers 2 was the best-selling video game.

After eight weeks, the game's sales are now trending ahead of where Spider-Man 2 (Sony's last big release) was after the same length of time. They are, of course, very different games, with Spider-Man 2 retailing at £70 and only releasing on PS5. Helldivers 2 has a lower price and is also available on PC.

Needless to say, the new game is showing impressive legs and continues to place near the top of the charts each week.

It was the battle of the Japanese RPGs during March with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (technically released in February, but part of the March data) and Dragon's Dogma 2 both coming to market. The result? A narrow success for Dragon's Dogma 2, which debuts at No.3 in this month's chart, while Final Fantasy VII Rebirth comes in at No.5. There isn't a huge amount in it, but it's worth noting that Dragon's Dogma 2 had only been on the market for two weeks when this data was counted.

Sandwiched between the two RPGs is WWE 2K24, which has had a stronger start to life than last year's game. After four weeks, 2K24's sales are 8% higher than what 2K23 managed.

Absolutely flooding the charts this week are Command & Conquer titles, which was part of a 17-title bundle released on Steam during March. Two of the games (Generals and Red Alert 2) make the Top Ten, with ten games in total in the Top 20.

As a result, new releases like Rise of Ronin (No.21) and Princess Peach: Showtime (No.30) are lower down the charts than they would have been.

Games hardware continues to fall year-on-year

Meanwhile, just over 117,000 games consoles were sold in the UK during March, GfK panel data shows.

It's a rise of 22% over February, but down 15% over March last year.

As we've said in previous months, PS5 became fully available this time last year, which caused a significant boost to sales, so comparisons this year were always likely to be tough. We're also into the eighth year on the market for Nintendo Switch, which is starting to show its age.

PS5 sales are up 25% over February, but down 9% over March last year. Sony's console is comfortably No.1 for the month.

Nintendo Switch sales are up 20% month-on-month, but down 20% year-on-year. While narrowly missing out on second place is Xbox Series S and X, which is up 19% over the month before, but down 18% year-on-year.

Elsewhere, 732,584 accessories were sold in the UK during March, which is up 20% over February and up 16% over March last year. The White DualSense controller drops to No.3, while the Midnight Black version leaps to the top. The Starlight Blue DualSense controller is the biggest riser of the month, up 13 places to No.6. The PlayStation Portal is up six places to No.8, and the Xbox Astral Purple Controller jumps nine places to No.9.

The new pink Joy-Cons for Switch, released to coincide with Nintendo's Princess Peach Showtime game, debut at No.52.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, GfK games boss Dorian Bloch went deeper on the sales of accessories this month.

“Controller category is really moving this year so far, led by PS5 joypads and especially by revenue,” he tells us. “The Dualsense Edge is the No.2 Joypad by revenue on PS5, just behind the Dualsense White. Obviously, the Edge does not sell in the same vast quantities as the Dualsense White, but we are talking a product that’s £57 vs a product at £209.”

Bloch adds that gaming mice and keyboards have been doing really well this year. The Mice market is dominated by Logitech products such as the G502, G305 and G203.

“And by revenue Logitech is stealing the show, Bloch says. “The Top 10 Mice by revenue this year are all Logitech.

In terms of keyboards, things are led by the Trust GXT-830 and GXT-865 (both of which were on sale during March), and the Logitech G213. Steelseries is showing impressive revenue growth, Bloch tells us, with five SKUs performing well, notably the Apex Pro keyboards.

UK GSD March 2024 Top 10 (Digital and Physical)

GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via PC digital stores, 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, Kepler, 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.