Video game sales up 1.7% in Europe during 2023 | European Annual Report

182 million PC and console games were sold across Europe in 2023, a rise of 1.7% over the year before.

This is based on GSD data, which tracks all physical game sales across major European markets, and digital sales from most major games publishers across every country in Europe.

As usual, EA's football game leads the sales by a comfortable margin. EA Sports FC 24 sold 9% fewer units in 2023 compared with FIFA 23 in 2022, but when you factor in the rebrand and the fact there was a World Cup in December 2022, it's not particularly unexpected. EA Sports FC 24's sales remain ahead of what the FIFA franchise was pulling in pre-pandemic.

In second place is Hogwarts Legacy, and Warner Bros' game has been a massive hit across Europe. In fact, outside of EA football games, no game has sold this many units in a calendar year since these charts began back in 2017.

It was a disappointing year for the new Call of Duty, which unusually didn't make the Top Three this year. Modern Warfare 3' sales are down 32% for the year compared with what 2022's Modern Warfare 2 managed (although it's worth noting that Modern Warfare 2 did launch slightly earlier in the year).

Another Activision Blizzard title makes No.6 in the form of Diablo 4, while Nintendo Switch exclusives The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros Wonder both chart well at No.7 and No.9 respectively. Both games may have reached higher in the charts, but Nintendo doesn't share digital data with the charts company, so this placement is based on their physical sales alone.

If we just look at the physical chart, Zelda comes in at No.3 and Mario at No.4.

Rounding off the Top Ten was Spider-Man 2 at No.10.

It was another strong year for Rockstar, with GTA 5 at No.5 (sales only down 1% over the year before) and Red Dead Redemption 2 at No.8 (with sales up 19% over the year before).

Other new games in the Top 20 include Star Wars Jedi: Survivor at No.11, Assassin's Creed Mirage at No.12, F1 23 at No.15, and Resident Evil 4 Remake at No.17.

Within the Top 100, there's Dead Space Remake (No.30), Final Fantasy 16 (No.32), NBA 2K24 (No.33), Dead Island 2 (No.35), Starfield (No.37), The Crew Motorfest (No.38), WWE 2K23 (No.42), Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (No.48), Mortal Kombat 1 (No.53), Just Dance 2024 (No.82), EA Sports UFC 5 (No.97) and Street Fighter 6 (No.98).

34% of all games sold in 2023 were titles released the same year, a slight drop on the 35% reported in 2022.

In terms of platforms, PC was No.1 in terms of game sales, ahead of PS5 (No.2), Switch (No.3), PS4 (No.4) and Xbox Series S and X (No.5). Out of those five, Switch and PS4 were the only platforms to post a drop in game sales year-on-year.

The biggest European market for games remains the UK, ahead of Germany (No.2), France (No.3), Spain (No.4) and Italy (No.5).

PlayStation 5 sales surged 177% across Europe

Across tracked European markets, 7.4 million video game consoles were sold in 2023, which is a rise of nearly 42% over the year before.

This is mostly due to the PS5, which saw a 177% increase in sales year-on-year. PS5 suffered severe stock issues during 2022.

PS5 was far and away the biggest console of the year. Nintendo Switch holds the No.2 spot, with sales dipping nearly 10% over the year before.

In third place is Xbox Series S and X, which saw sales drop nearly 18% over the year before.

Another platform that saw big growth was PlayStation 4. Again, this console was in short supply in 2022, and as a result sales are up 671% in 2023.

In terms of accessories, 20.5 million peripherals were sold in Europe last year, a rise of 9% year-on-year. The PS5 DualSense controller leads the pack, followed by Microsoft's Xbox Series Wireless controller.

European GSD 2023 Top 20 (Digital and Physical)

*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, 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.