Video game sales up 1.7% in Europe during 2023 | European Annual Report
182 million PC and console games were sold across Europe in 2023, a rise of 1.7% over the year before.
This is based on GSD data, which tracks all physical game sales across major European markets, and digital sales from most major games publishers across every country in Europe.
As usual, EA's football game leads the sales by a comfortable margin. EA Sports FC 24 sold 9% fewer units in 2023 compared with FIFA 23 in 2022, but when you factor in the rebrand and the fact there was a World Cup in December 2022, it's not particularly unexpected. EA Sports FC 24's sales remain ahead of what the FIFA franchise was pulling in pre-pandemic.
In second place is Hogwarts Legacy, and Warner Bros' game has been a massive hit across Europe. In fact, outside of EA football games, no game has sold this many units in a calendar year since these charts began back in 2017.
It was a disappointing year for the new Call of Duty, which unusually didn't make the Top Three this year. Modern Warfare 3' sales are down 32% for the year compared with what 2022's Modern Warfare 2 managed (although it's worth noting that Modern Warfare 2 did launch slightly earlier in the year).
Another Activision Blizzard title makes No.6 in the form of Diablo 4, while Nintendo Switch exclusives The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros Wonder both chart well at No.7 and No.9 respectively. Both games may have reached higher in the charts, but Nintendo doesn't share digital data with the charts company, so this placement is based on their physical sales alone.
If we just look at the physical chart, Zelda comes in at No.3 and Mario at No.4.
Rounding off the Top Ten was Spider-Man 2 at No.10.
It was another strong year for Rockstar, with GTA 5 at No.5 (sales only down 1% over the year before) and Red Dead Redemption 2 at No.8 (with sales up 19% over the year before).
Other new games in the Top 20 include Star Wars Jedi: Survivor at No.11, Assassin's Creed Mirage at No.12, F1 23 at No.15, and Resident
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