Xbox Series sales in Europe have dropped considerably compared to last year, while PS5 sales experienced a major boost year-on-year.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, this data comes from the European video games tracking chart GSD. Console hardware data includes sales numbers from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Xbox Series X and Series S aren't the only platforms down on sales year-on-year - Nintendo Switch sales are also down 20% compared to October last year. With plenty of supply this October, PS5 sales are up 143% compared to last year, while sales of Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S are down 52%. Following the successful launch of Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, PS5 and Nintendo Switch sales are up 11% and 10% respectively compared to September 2023. Meanwhile, Xbox Series sales are down roughly 20% compared to last month.
It will be interesting to see how the consoles of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft perform this month with various discounts due to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
As for software sales in Europe - EA Sports FC 24 was the best-selling game of October 2023, followed by Assassin's Creed Mirage. Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 takes the 3rd spot, although it should be noted that this game launched two weeks earlier than Spider-Man and is a multi-platform title as well. When looking at individual Spider-Man 2 sales across Europe, sales were 30% higher than 2018's Spider-Man on PS4, and nearly three times higher than 2020's Miles Morales (PS5 and PS4). Comparing sales of Spider-Man 2 to those of God of War Ragnarok in their first two weeks, we can see that Spider-Man 2 sold 28% less. It should be noted, however, that Ragnarok also launched on PS4. As a matter of fact, Spider-Man 2 managed to beat Ragnarok by 8% when only accounting for PS5 sales after two weeks of sales (in Europe*).
GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Sabre Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvellous Games, Microids, Microsoft (including Bethesda), Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Nintendo and 505 Games are the notable absentees, alongside smaller studios.
Digital data includes 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 and Ukraine.
Physical data includes all games, but only those sold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.