PS5 and Xbox console sales continue to drop as V Rising tops UK charts-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro

PS5 is still the best selling console in the UK (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Games console sales dropped once again over May in the UK, as V Rising and Paper Mario debut on the software top 10 chart.

In what is now an ongoing trend for 2024, games console sales across the board have fallen once again in the UK.

By most metrics, the remainder of this year looks set to be relatively quiet for the console business – with Sony projecting a decline in PS5 sales due to a lack of ‘major’ existing franchise titles before next year, while reports indicate Nintendo’s successor to the Switch isn’t set to launch until 2025.

As such, the latest UK hardware sales results for May entirely fall in line with these expectations, but it still paints a pretty bleak picture nonetheless.

As reported by Gamesindustry.biz, just under 65,000 games consoles were sold in the UK in May, a drop of 10% from April, and a decline of 33% over the same month last year.

A reason for this sharp decline over last year is The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which helped boost Switch sales significantly in May 2023.

In terms of the individual platforms, PS5 continues to rule the roost but sales were down 13% over April. The Nintendo Switch was in second with sales down 9% over the previous month, while Xbox Series X/S was in third with sales also falling by 9% over April.

On the software side, vampire survival game V Rising claimed the number one spot in May following its launch on PC. A PS5 version launched earlier this month, so it might stick around into next month’s chart too.

Ghost Of Tsushima: Director’s Cut returned to number six following its launch on PC, which is PlayStation’s second biggest PC release behind Helldivers 2. More PlayStation games are set to come out on PC in the coming months, namely God Of War Ragnarök and Until Dawn.

The other new entry is Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door which debuted at number eight. Digital sales of Nintendo titles aren’t included in the chart, however, so it’s likely sold better than these figures show.

It was a slow month overall though with 1.85 million games sold in May, which is a drop of 21% compared to the same timeframe last year.

With hardly any major releases over the coming months, it seems like this sales decline will continue over the summer. There is new hardware on the horizon though, with a new white digital Xbox Series X set to launch later this year, while Sony’s PS5 Pro is also expected to be announced soon following a wave of leaks.

It’s unlikely these new consoles will impact sales in any significant way though, so Microsoft and Sony are perhaps anticipating the arrival of GTA 6 just as much as everyone else.

Recently, PlayStation did find a silver lining among the downward projections, with the PS5 being the most profitable console ever for Sony.

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