Elden Ring, Pokmon Legends: Arceus drove European sales during the first half of 2022
Christopher Dring
Head of Games B2B
Thursday 21st July 2022
76.1 million games were sold across Europe during the first six months of the year, a rise of 13.5% over the same period in 2021 (GSD Market Data).
32 million of these games were physical titles, while 44 million were sold via digital stores. The physical data covers all games sold in a box, while the digital data covers games from mainly AAA game developers (with Nintendo the notable absentee).
The biggest European market for game sales was Germany, with nearly 15.4 million games sold over the first six months of the year (sales up 13.6% compared with the same period in 2021). Followed by the UK with 14.3 million sales (up 2%), then France with 10.2 million (up 12.1%).
The market growth across Europe was driven by some major new game releases.
Elden Ring was comfortably the best-selling title of the first six months of the year. Although it must be noted that Pokémon Legends: Arceus in third-place doesn't include download sales (because Nintendo doesn't share its digital numbers). Therefore, the Switch game may have charted higher, although it has some ground to make up to trouble Elden Ring.
Nevertheless, in terms of physical sales only, Pokémon Legends was the No.1 game. Nintendo Switch games tend to skew more towards the physical retail market, compared with games sold on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
Elden Ring was the No.1 game in the UK, whereas Pokémon Legends: Arceus was No.1 in Germany and in France
In terms of countries, things varied quite a bit. Elden Ring was the No.1 game in the UK, whereas Pokémon Legends: Arceus was No.1 in Germany and in France. Meanwhile, it was FIFA 22 that dominated the first six months in Spain and Italy.
In terms of the
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