The European annual video game sales report 2023

Based on the data put out by the GSD (Game sales data) – an institution that collects and reports video game sales across most of Europe’s major markets – over 182 million video games were purchased in Europe in 2023, across PC and console platforms combined. This is an increase of roughly 1.7% when compared year-to-year with the figures from 2022.

Overall it was another year that saw the EA Sports’ football title, this year it is EA Sports FC 24, comfortably claim the No.1 place as the best-selling game in Europe. Despite selling around 10% fewer games than last year – most likely because of the sudden rebrand and the fact there was a World Cup in 2022 – the popular football game, formally known as FIFA, still managed to claim the top spot this year, ahead of its competitors.

Hogwarts Legacy, the Harry Potter action role-playing game came closest, taking the No.2 and becoming a smash hit throughout most of Europe. Since the GSD charts started in 2017, other than FIFA, no other title has sold more games in a single year than that of Hogwarts Legacy.

Call of Duty wishes it could say the same, but unfortunately, after a lackluster release, Modern Warfare 3 had to settle for a place outside of the top 3 in the charts this year. Compared to MW2, sales on this year’s edition of the world-renowned shooter have dropped by more than 30%, and 2023 might have been considered a disappointing year for Activision Blizzard if not for Diablo 4, which made it to the No.6 position in the chart.

In the world of Nintendo, the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (No.7) and Super Mario Bros Wonder (No.9) each sold well and, even after all these years, both franchises continue to epitomize the high-quality games that Nintendo are known for.

In fact, if you just accounted for physical sales alone, the two titles would have made it to the No.3 and No.4 positions, but as Nintendo doesn’t publicly disclose its digital sales data, they have to settle for the lower positions on the chart. With that said, both ended the year in the top 10 and marked another good year for the platform overall.

Rockstar’s GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 both made it into the top 10 again this year, with overall sales on RDR 2 surprisingly being up by almost 20% compared to figures from 2022.

The only other new release to make it into the top 10 was the PS5 exclusive, Spider-Man 2, coming in at No.10. Some other notable new releases to make it into the Top 20 were; Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (No.11), Assassin’s Creed Mirage (No.12), and the Resident Evil 4 Remake (No.17).

Regarding which platform sold the most game units, even though Sony had one of its greatest years ever in terms of console sales with the PS5, it ultimately had to settle for the No.2 position, behind PC. Following next was the Nintendo Switch at No.3, the PlayStation 4 at No.4, and Xbox Series X/S at No.5.

When it comes to the biggest markets in Europe for video games, the UK remains No.1 for another year, with Germany not far behind at No.2, and France, Spain, and Italy in the third, fourth, and fifth places respectively.

Almost 7.5 million game consoles were sold throughout the tracked European markets in 2023. Overall, this is a substantial increase of a little over 40% from the 2022 figures. Most of this can be attributed to the PlayStation 5, as the console saw a 177% growth in sales for 2023. And this can be attributed to the fact that Sony was finally able to overcome the semi-conductor component crisis in the previous years and start manufacturing proper quantities of hardware demanded by customers.

This staggering increase in sales easily made the PS5 the best-selling console of the year. The Nintendo Switch remained strong in second place, despite sales dropping by roughly 10% from last year. The Xbox Series X/S had to settle for third place, as sales on the console(s) decreased by around 18% or so, from the previous year.

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, it was the PlayStation 4, not the PlayStation 5, that actually enjoyed the biggest percentage growth in sales. As the console was in short supply for much of 2022, renewed stock in 2023 resulted in a whopping 671% increase in sales for the year.

Accessories and add-ons also enjoyed a fruitful year, with just over 20.5 million additional items being sold throughout Europe in 2023. Comparing this with 2022, it is an increase of nearly 10%. As far as the No.1 accessory in Europe, the honor goes to the DualSense PS5 controller, with the Xbox Series X/S Wireless controller coming in at No.2.