According to VGC, 188.1 million PC and console games were sold in Europe in 2024, up 1% from last year. A game from Ukrainian developers also made it into the top twenty best-selling titles, but (spoiler alert) it’s not STALKER 2.
According to VGC, 188.1 million PC and console games were sold in Europe in 2024, up 1% from last year. A game from Ukrainian developers also made it into the top twenty best-selling titles, but (spoiler alert) it’s not STALKER 2.
As Video Games Chronicle notes, citing GSD, 131.6 million games were sold through digital download stores, up 15% from the previous 12 months, while 56.5 million games were sold through physical retail outlets, down 22%.
The best-selling game of the year was EA Sports FC 25, which is not surprising given the popularity of the football simulation series. However, it started the year with a slightly weaker sales performance: sales of EA Sports FC 25 fell by 5% compared to FC 24 sales during the same period.
Call of Duty has reclaimed its position as the second-biggest video game in Europe (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was only in 4th place in 2023). 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 as part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service (and these downloads are not tracked there).
Only six new games made the top 20 in 2024 (down from 10 last year). In fact, new release sales in 2024 fell 21% compared to new releases in 2023. Overall, new releases accounted for 27% of games sold last year, down from 34% in 2023.
As for older games, there were some notable highs. An aggressive €1 discount helped Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 climb the charts to No. 8. Heavy discounts on EA’s It Takes Two helped the co-op game climb to No. 9 this year (sales up 39% for 2023). Elden Ring climbed to No. 11 with a 46% sales jump thanks to the new Shadow of the Earth expansion. Meanwhile, the release of the Fallout TV series, along with significant discounts, saw Fallout 4 sales jump 183% to No. 19.
Despite the fact that the game from the Ukrainian studio 4A Games was released almost 5 years ago, in February 2019, thanks to constant deep discounts, it managed to take 20th place in sales in Europe. Another Ukrainian game, STALKER 2, was released in late 2024 and, despite selling almost 3 million copies, did not make it to the list of best-selling games.
2024 was a tough year for the console market, with console sales down 21% year-over-year. PS5 was the best-selling platform in all markets tracked, but sales fell 20%. Nintendo Switch sales fell 15%, while Xbox Series X/S sales fell 48%. The console market has endured a tough year due to a lack of major releases, as well as the Switch turning 8.
Games Sales Data includes games from companies sold through Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies include: Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, EA, Embracer Group (including Plaion), Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvelous Games, Microids, Microsoft (including Bethesda), Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Tencent, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros.
Digital sales data covers 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 the United Kingdom.
Physical sales data covers Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Finland, France, Switzerland, and Sweden.
Console equipment sales cover Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland.
