Nintendo Switch was Europe's No.1 console in March | European Monthly Charts
Christopher Dring
Head of Games B2B
Thursday 14th April 2022
Across Europe, video game sales jumped in March, driven by continued strong sales for Elden Ring, plus a number of big releases.
Stock shortages continue to hold back Xbox and PlayStation, but it was a strong month for Nintendo Switch, with sales up year-on-year.
Over 14.2 million games were sold across Europe in March, a rise of over 34% compared with March last year.
Elden Ring is No.1 for a second month in a row and continues to be a major seller on digital download stores. Xbox Live, PSN and Steam accounted for 69% of the game's sales last month.
Sony's Gran Turismo 7 is in a comfortable second position on the podium. The new release title actually sold best at physical retail, with boxed copies accounting for 58% of sales. The PS5 version of the game was the most popular, representing 64% of all copies sold (with the remainder on PS4).
Elden Ring was the best-selling game in UK and Germany, whereas GT7 took No.1 in France, Spain and Italy.
In terms of the single-format chart, Gran Turismo 7 on PS5 was the No.1 game of the month, ahead of Elden Ring on PC.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is at No.4, with sales up 65% over March 2021. The Rockstar game saw a rise in sales following a new version for PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. 35% of GTA 5 sales were on PS5 last month, 22% on PS4, 19% on the Xbox Series consoles, 14% on PC and 10% on Xbox One.
Rounding off the Top Five is Kirby and the Forgotten Land on Switch. Nintendo does not share digital data with GSD, so the game's No.5 position is purely based on boxed sales. The game was most popular in Germany, followed by France.
The first month's sales for this new Kirby game are 231% higher than the previous title in the franchise,
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