UK PC and console sales grew 2.6% in 2023 | UK Annual Report
38 million video games were sold in the UK during 2023, the latest GSD figures reveal.
It's a slight increase of 2.6% over the year before, with EA Sports FC 24 continuing where FIFA left off as the UK's best-selling video game.
Sales for the rebranded series are down 8.4% over the year before to 2.39 million units sold. It's worth noting that FIFA 23 benefitted from the FIFA World Cup, which ran over December 2022.
It was another strong year for Warner Bros. After securing the No.3 best-selling UK game in 2022 (LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga), the company has gone one better with Hogwarts Legacy, which easily beat Call of Duty to No.2.
The Harry Potter spin-off was also the best-selling physical game of the year. It had a protracted release, with the PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S and X versions launching in February, the PS4 and Xbox One editions arriving in May, before reaching Nintendo Switch in November.
At No.3 in the charts is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Although it was billed as a full sequel to 2022's Modern Warfare 2, fans felt it was more like an expansion, which may explain why its sales are nearly 39% lower compared with the previous year's game. Modern Warfare 2 was also on sale a little longer, having launched in October, whereas Modern Warfare 3 arrived in November.
EA Sports FC 24, Hogwarts Legacy and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 all had marketing partnerships with PlayStation, and over half of those games' sales were on Sony formats.
It wasn't the strongest year for new IP (unless you count EA Sports FC). The highest charting new IP released last year was Starfield, which reached No.31. The best-selling new IP of 2022 was Elden Ring, which reached No.4. Elden Ring is at No.28 in the 2023 chart.
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