Video game sales jump 20% in Europe during September | European Monthly Report

EA Sports FC 25, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Astro Bot, The Crew 2 and Zelda deliver strong results

Image credit: Team Asobi, Sony Interactive Entertainment

17.6 million PC and console games were sold across Europe last month, according to the latest GSD figures.

It’s a big month, with game sales up by more than 20% compared with September 2023.

Unsurprisingly, EA Sports FC 25 took the top spot. It is a slightly softer launch this year than it was last year, with the game’s first two weeks on sale coming in 2% lower than last year’s version.

However, if we just look at the higher priced premium version (which players had to buy if they wanted access during that first week), and sales of that version were nearly 10% higher than the year before. So overall, it appears to be a strong performance from EA’s latest football title.

Racing into second place is The Crew 2 from Ubisoft. The 2018 game was treated to an aggressive promotion where the publisher effectively gave the game away for free (users simply had to pay the €1 platform fee).

That means the big surprise hit of the month had to settle for third place. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has been a real breakout hit, and just like in the UK, it is currently 2024’s third best-selling new game after just a few weeks on sale, ahead of the likes of Dragon’s Dogma 2, The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

It is comfortably the fastest-selling Warhammer game so far. In fact, after four weeks it is on the brink of becoming the best-selling Warhammer game across Europe of all time, eclipsing the sales of the Total War: Warhammer titles.

Also new in September is Astro Bot from PlayStation. It’s a decent launch for the 3D platform game. Compared to recent AAA 3D platform efforts, Astro’s sales after four weeks are 34% bigger than 2022’s Sonic Frontiers and 52% up over 2020’s Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

Sales are also 7.5% higher than what platform shooter Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart managed over a similar period in 2021, which was also a PS5 exclusive aimed at a slighter wider audience.

New at No.6 this week is NBA 2K25. It’s a marginally better opening for NBA this year, with launch sales up 1% over 2K24.

Another new game in the charts is The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom at No.8. The game had been on sale for a week by the time this chart was compiled, and its position is based only on physical sales as Nintendo does not share its own digital figures with the charts company.

In terms of physical sales, Echoes of Wisdom’s sales are 15% below that of 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake (which uses the same art style as Echoes of Wisdom). Of course, without digital it’s difficult to know exactly how things compared as downloading has accelerated significantly since 2019..

Finally rounding off the Top Ten is the return of the Test Drive series, with Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown coming in at No.10.

Elsewhere, Microsoft’s Age of Mythology Retold comes in at No.12. And sticking with PC releases, God of War Regnarok returns at No.15 and Final Fantasy XVI is back at No.27 after both games arrived on PC last month.

Harry Potter Quidditch Champions had a pretty slow launch, debuting at No.28. The game was available as part of the PlayStation Plus subscription service, and the Nintendo Switch version isn’t out until November.

Finally, the remaster of Dead Rising comes in at No.48, while a new version of Disney’s Epic Mickey lands at No.83.

In terms of hardware, across tracked markets 335,000 games consoles were sold, a drop of 18% over September last year.

PS5 remains comfortably No.1 across all markets, although sales are down 17% over this time last year. Nintendo Switch is in second place and actually saw sales increase 1.5% over the year before, potentially helped by the new Zelda Switch Lite console.

Xbox Series S and X remain in third position with sales down 58% over this time last year. September 2023 saw the release of a major new Xbox title in Starfield, which will partially explain the big drop year-on-year.

Over in accessories, nearly 1.1 million items were sold across tracked markets, a drop of 2.4% over September last year. The PS5 DualSense remains the leading controller, potentially boosted last month by the new Astro Bot special edition variant.

European GSD September 2024 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)

Position
Title

1
EA Sports FC 25 (EA)

2
The Crew 2 (Ubisoft)

3
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Pullup Entertainment)

4
Astro Bot (Sony)

5
Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)

6
NBA 2K25 (2K Games)

7
Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)

8
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo)*

9
The Crew Motorfest (Ubisoft)

10
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (Big Ben)

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, Tencent, 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, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.

Physical data includes all games, but only those sold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

Console hardware sales cover Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Accessories sales cover the same markets, but doesn’t include Switzerland.