Console sales drop 40% in Europe as EA Sports FC 24 tops May chart-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro

EA Sports FC 24 is still riding high (EA)

EA Sports FC 24 and GTA 5 were the best-selling games in Europe in May 2024, as console sales across the board took a nosedive compared to last year.

After console sales in the UK fell by 33% last month, new figures show the same decline has happened across Europe.

The rest of this year looks set to be relatively quiet for the console business – with Sony projecting a drop in PS5 sales, while reports indicate Nintendo’s successor to the Switch isn’t set to launch until 2025.

This slow 2024 is reflected in the sales charts for May in Europe, which shows console unit sales were down 40% year-over-year. These sales cover Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

According to GSD data published by Gamesindustry.biz, which covers physical game sales from major markets and digital sales from most publishers (excluding Nintendo and 505 Games), software sales also dropped by nearly 17% from the same period last year.

As with the UK charts, a part of this drop was down to last year’s sales for Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which significantly boosted sales of the Switch. As noted in the report, Zelda in May 2023 managed to outsell the entire May 2024 top ten combined, so this decline was perhaps inevitable.

On the software side this month, EA Sports FC 24 and GTA 5 took the top two spots. The highest new entry was F1 2024 at number three, but its launch sales were down 35% over the previous entry.

Ghost Of Tsushima: Director’s Cut managed to shoot up to number four following the launch of the PC version. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, meanwhile, debuted at number five, which is only based on physical sales as Nintendo doesn’t share digital data – so it’s likely sold better than these figures show.

With hardly any major releases over the coming months, it seems unlikely that hardware or software sales will pick up 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, but we doubt it’ll impact overall sales in any significant way.

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