According to VGC, in 2024, 188.1 million PC and console games were sold in Europe, which is 1% more than last year. A game from Ukrainian developers Metro Exodus, made it into the top 20 best-selling titles.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, referencing GSD, 131.6 million games were sold through digital download stores, a 15% increase compared to the previous 12 months, while 56.5 million games were sold through physical retail stores, a 22% decrease.
The best-selling game of the year was EA Sports FC 25.
Call of Duty regained its position as the second largest video game in Europe (in 2023, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ranked only 4th). Sales of last year's Black Ops 6 were 9% higher than those of Modern Warfare 3 in 2023. This is despite the fact that the new game was available through the Xbox Game Pass subscription service (which doesn’t track these downloads).
Only six new games made it into the top 20 for 2024 (last year there were 10). In fact, sales of new releases in 2024 fell by 21% compared to new releases in 2023. Overall, new releases accounted for 27% of games sold last year, compared to 34% in 2023.
As for older games, there were several notable high performers. A steep discount to 1 euro allowed Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 to climb to 8th place in the charts. Strong discounts for EA’s It Takes Two helped the cooperative game rise to 9th place this year (sales increased by 39% compared to 2023). Elden Ring rose to 11th place, with a 46% increase in sales due to the new expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree. Meanwhile, the release of the Fallout TV series, along with significant discounts, led to a 183% increase in Fallout 4 sales, placing the game in 19th place.
Despite the fact that the game from the Ukrainian studio 4A Games was released almost 5 years ago, in February 2019, it managed to secure the 20th spot in European sales thanks to constant large discounts. Another Ukrainian game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, was released at the end of 2024, and despite nearly 3 million copies sold, it did not make it onto the list of the best-selling games.
2024 was a tough year for the console market: sales of gaming consoles fell by 21% compared to last year. The PS5 was the best-selling platform across all tracked markets, but its sales dropped by 20%. Nintendo Switch sales declined by 15%, while Xbox Series X/S sales fell by 48%. The console market had a difficult year due to the lack of major releases and the fact that the Switch is already 8 years old.
GSD download 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, EA, Embracer Group (including Plaion), 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 is the notable absentee, alongside smaller studios and publishers.
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 sales data includes all games, and covers 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.
