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Sales Data Europe Monthly Charts - August 2023: PS5 (+197%), NSW (+1%), XBS (-12%)

Luminoth9090

Luminoth9090

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Video game and console sales jump in Europe during August | UK Monthly Charts​

PS5 sales up 197% month-on-month



Christopher Dring avatar


Feature by Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B
Published on Sept. 20, 2023
Follow Interactive Software Federation of Europe

10.7 million video games from AAA publishers were sold across Europe last month, GSD data reports.
That's a rise of nearly 29% over August last year. It's an impressive result, especially as the big game of August - Baldur's Gate 3 - is not counted in this data as publisher Larian is not part of the GSD panel.

Instead, FIFA 23 is No.1. The football game saw a particularly big spike in sales on Nintendo Switch, as the game was on offer via the Nintendo eShop.
EA's game is very closely followed by Grand Theft Auto 5, which saw a 40% jump in sales (compared to August 2022) primarily due to promotional activity on PlayStation 5.

If we look at games by single platform, the best-selling game of the month was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom followed by Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. It was another solid month for Nintendo across Europe.

The highest charting new game was Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, which is just behind Hogwarts Legacy at No.4. The From Software game comfortably sold best in the UK, with sales almost double that of Germany and three times bigger than France.

Back in the charts for August is Red Dead Redemption at No.11. The game bounced back into the charts after it was released on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The PS4 version accounted for almost two thirds of the sales.

Just missing out on the Top 20 for the month was Quake 2, which received an updated release (with extra levels) across all platforms. The game jumps to No.23.

Starfield is the fifth biggest game launch in Europe this year (so far) image



Starfield is the fifth biggest game launch in Europe this year (so far)
Read more on GamesIndustry.biz

In terms of consoles, not all markets are tracked by GSD (Germany and UK are the notable absentees), but in terms of the countries that are tracked, hardware sales are up 67% compared with August last year. This is primarily down to PlayStation 5, which saw an impressive sales jump of 197% over last August. There were severe stock shortages for PS5 across Europe last year.

Nintendo Switch continues to do remarkably well considering the age of the console. Sales were up just under 1% compared with August last year. However, Xbox Series S and X struggled, with sales down nearly 12% compared with the same period in 2022. This will likely be a different story come September, with a new hardware SKU and the launch of Starfield expected to boost sales.

Finally, accessories sales were up 36% in August year-on-year. This is due to strong sales of the PS5 DualSense controller, which saw a 170% sales spike due to improved PS5 console sales.

European GSD August 2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)​

PositionTitle
1FIFA 23 (EA)
2Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
3Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
4Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (Bandai Namco)
5Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
6F1 23 (EA)
7Diablo 4 (Activision Blizzard)
8The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
9Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
10Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar)
11Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar)
12Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)
13Mortal Kombat 11 (Warner Bros)
14Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard)
15Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft)
16Gran Turismo 7 (Sony)
17Forza Horizon 5 (Microsoft)
18Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Mojang)
19Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (EA)
20Pikmin 4 (Nintendo)*
* Digital data unavailable
 
Monthly year over year percentage increases/decreases

2023PS5NSWXBS
Jan+202-11-32
Feb+400-28+13
Mar+400-19-13
Apr+144+38+19
May+81+39-16
June+116-2-1
July+244-9???
August+197+1-12
 
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man Xbox really can't catch a break huh? At this point I wonder if it will even catch up to the Xbone's lifetime sales (around 58 million)
 
Lugia667 said:
man Xbox really can't catch a break huh? At this point I wonder if it will even catch up to the Xbone's lifetime sales (around 58 million)
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I wonder if Microsoft has to dump the Xbox brand at some point and start over, or put it under a new umbrella, if they continue to see gaming as a "path to relevance with consumers." I mean, that attitude to gaming is probably the true root of their troubles. But if the Xbox brand keeps shrinking then they're gonna need a fresh approach.
 
Like I wrote in another thread a couple of weeks ago this is the last Xbox generation. If MS can't even compete with 7 years old switch let alone ps5 while having gamepass and the cheapest sku on the market it's time to throw the towel.
 
PS5 doing well and ramping up, not surprised about Red Dead Redemption 2 doing better for PS4 in Europe honestly. Oh and I see it's for sale for 28 Euros for the PS4 version vs 50 Euros for the Switch version.
 
neil said:
I wonder if Microsoft has to dump the Xbox brand at some point and start over, or put it under a new umbrella, if they continue to see gaming as a "path to relevance with consumers." I mean, that attitude to gaming is probably the true root of their troubles. But if the Xbox brand keeps shrinking then they're gonna need a fresh approach.
Click to expand...
The logical conclusion to Xbox is turning it into a subscription service. They're clearly trying to ease their customers into the idea of being able to access their Xbox games on any device which would also give them a convenient excuse to bow out of the hardware game.
 
Forks said:
The logical conclusion to Xbox is turning it into a subscription service. They're clearly trying to ease their customers into the idea of being able to access their Xbox games on any device which would also give them a convenient excuse to bow out of the hardware game.
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sub services have their own issues too though. Look at the problems Netflix and Disney Plus are having atm
 
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I’m worried that Microsoft leaving the console market means they might somehow get into participation directly to Sony or Nintendo
 
Forks said:
The logical conclusion to Xbox is turning it into a subscription service. They're clearly trying to ease their customers into the idea of being able to access their Xbox games on any device which would also give them a convenient excuse to bow out of the hardware game.
Click to expand...
The problem is that they're also pulling back from xCloud, which puts a hard limit on the addressable audience.
The way I imagined GamePass taking off was if it was built into your new TV and your only investment to get into the ecosystem was the subscription price.

Latency obviously has been an issue, perhaps an insurmountable one, but at the same time I know people who were having a really good time on Stadia so idk. I imagine it'll never be good enough for the hardcore but people like me wouldn't even notice anything was amiss.
The point is, at the moment, the alternative to Xbox hardware is PC, which is an even more expensive entry point for most people. And the biggest win for the PC platform in terms of lowering the barrier to entry is the Deck, which doesn't even run Windows (out of the box). Not looking good for Microsoft imo, and I say this as someone who is invested in their model succeeding against the current status quo.
 
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ziggyrivers said:
I’m worried that Microsoft leaving the console market means they might somehow get into participation directly to Sony or Nintendo
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you mean. I don't think something like Microsoft providing online infrastructure or streaming solutions to either of them would be the worst thing in the world. At that point it'd be strictly a business partnership since Microsoft wouldn't be directly competing with them anymore.
 
Forks said:
The logical conclusion to Xbox is turning it into a subscription service. They're clearly trying to ease their customers into the idea of being able to access their Xbox games on any device which would also give them a convenient excuse to bow out of the hardware game.
Click to expand...
I don't know if I agree, but I was talking specifically about the brand. If it becomes associated with failure then they have to kill it off. Personally I don't think Microsoft can turn this around. Very hard to come back from distant 3rd.
 
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Stephen said:
I'm not sure what you mean. I don't think something like Microsoft providing online infrastructure or streaming solutions to either of them would be the worst thing in the world. At that point it'd be strictly a business partnership since Microsoft wouldn't be directly competing with them anymore.
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I was referring more to trying to acquire wither companies.

But I thought about that scenario as well: licensing. They may create digital platforms and tools that would benefit both competitors. They’ve done a tremendous job with their proprietary Xbox software. Imagine what they could do with Sony and Nintendo
 
ziggyrivers said:
I was referring more to trying to acquire wither companies.
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Ah, I see. I wouldn't be so concerned though. Short of either company suffering a catastrophe or two Nintendo and Sony would be far too expensive and troublesome to buy out even for Microsoft. The most I could see is Sony selling off PlayStation but that's highly doubtful as it's been a stable source of revenue even when the rest of Sony is struggling.
 
Jesus, the PS5 has had a massive boost, even without a price drop. Probably helps that folk can actually get it now without TOO much of a hassle 😅

Switch is still doing alright but poor Xbox, it should be in its peak years right now
 
NSW in July and August

July
Japan - 301K up from 271K last year
U.S - 250K est
EU - down 9% yoy
UK - 29K est.

August
Japan - 335K up from 325K last year
U.S - 200K est
EU - up 1% yoy
UK - 27K est.

If September falls in line with Switch's performance in July and August then it will be down from the 3.25 million shipped in FYQ2 last year, however the declines are not too bad and it could hit a flat 3 million.
 
SuperFakerBros said:
Jesus, the PS5 has had a massive boost, even without a price drop. Probably helps that folk can actually get it now without TOO much of a hassle 😅

Switch is still doing alright but poor Xbox, it should be in its peak years right now
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PS5 is expected to see massive year over year increases in Europe, last years European sales were really poor due to the supply problems and Sony prioritizing other markets.
 
neil said:
I wonder if Microsoft has to dump the Xbox brand at some point and start over, or put it under a new umbrella, if they continue to see gaming as a "path to relevance with consumers." I mean, that attitude to gaming is probably the true root of their troubles. But if the Xbox brand keeps shrinking then they're gonna need a fresh approach.
Click to expand...
Feel like dumping the Xbox brand would just be a new impediment. It doesn't really matter what it's called, for most of the world there is little incentive to get an Xbox over a PS console.
 
Forks said:
The logical conclusion to Xbox is turning it into a subscription service. They're clearly trying to ease their customers into the idea of being able to access their Xbox games on any device which would also give them a convenient excuse to bow out of the hardware game.
Click to expand...

This isn't a logical conclusion as Xbox is mostly going to be a f2p, microtransactions-driven publisher after the Activision Blizzard is bought and CoD finally goes f2p.
 
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Forks said:
The logical conclusion to Xbox is turning it into a subscription service. They're clearly trying to ease their customers into the idea of being able to access their Xbox games on any device which would also give them a convenient excuse to bow out of the hardware game.
Click to expand...
It was mentioned on the Xbox Two podcast in the past that as long as Microsoft wants to stay in the cloud market, there will also be a dedicated home console for consumers. The cloud blades run on dedicated hardware that requires dedicated ports. Right now their cloud infrastructure is based around Xbox Series X running four instances of Xbox Series S games each. Their next gen cloud tech would be based on their next console and so forth.

I'm not saying Microsoft is going to stay in the hardware business forever, but simply not producing a console anymore would heavily impact what their overall strategy is of playing games you want on any device that can run a cloud instance in addition to pc and console.
 
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The "Microsoft wants to be a subscription-company!" just doesn't make any sense as Call of Duty synergizes about as badly as possible with a subscription-company.

1. Most consumers do not like gaming subscriptions because they don't play enough games
2. If Call of Duty is still full price, then Microsoft either throws away hundreds of millions by putting it on GamePass, or makes a Call of Duty exception on GamePass. The only way to put a full price Call of Duty on GamePass and have it make any financial sense is by massively increasing the price of GamePass, and this then drive away any consumers who don't already have GamePass.
3. If Call of Duty goes f2p, then a subscription service makes little sense. You could offer bonus perks for GamePass players, but no one cares about that stuff and it's been super unsuccessful.

GamePass is a good service, but it's a failed business model that synergizes horribly with Microsoft's devs and IPs.

Subscription models make sense for publishers that make games that are paid and that are like 30 minutes to 5 hours long or are low production values. The company that does TES, Halo, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Fallout, and Doom does not fit this at all.

It's a company just doing random things that sound like they could be good ideas but aren't coherent.
 
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Luminoth9090 said:
PS5 is expected to see massive year over year increases in Europe, last years European sales were really poor due to the supply problems and Sony prioritizing other markets.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that'd do it. I won't lie, with inflation over the past few years, current gen still taking its sweet time to get things properly rolling, and the current gen consoles selling well, it does make me wonder if we'll see substantial price cuts again, even with the potential Pro models
 
AngryAlchemist said:
33% sales being the Nintendo Switch version is not a bad split?
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It is not but it shows how low eShop digital sales on Switch.

In the month of August, discounted games excluded, RDR1 was number one best selling game on eShop in Europe. We have the thread here on Fami.
In same month RDR1 charted #2 on European PS4 best sellers, again, discounted games excluded.

Second spot RDR1 on PS4 DOUBLED the sales on number one spot RDR1 on eShop. People are buying too few games digitally on Switch and that's depressing. Physical just isn't sustainable.
 
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Scrawnton said:
I know this is a joke post, but they do realize that. Hence the push for cloud and pc.
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They don’t get anything out of losing so badly now though. they can pin their hopes on the future all they want but if they don’t get a bigger audience into their eco system soon I don’t think anyone will care or they’ll just wait for their competitors to do whatever becomes the norm in the future.

They arent tanking. They don‘t get a first round draft pick for coming in last again.
 
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