1 week Ago By Christopher Dring
2.9 million video games were sold in the UK during October, a rise of 3.2% over the year before.
That's according to GSD, which tracks digital and physical sales in the UK. Unsurprisingly, the month was led by Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. This is the first game in the series that was available in the Game Pass subscription service (available on Xbox and PC) from launch, which inevitably had a negative impact on its premium sales.
Indeed, compared with 2023's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, launch sales are 11% lower. If we just focus on sales of the franchise on PlayStation platforms (PS4 and PS5), where Game Pass isn't available, we can see that premium sales are up 24% year-on-year. So overall, it looks like a positive launch for the series this year.
Almost 75% of the game's sales came on PlayStation platforms, with 15% on PC and just under 11% on Xbox. At No.2 is EA Sports FC 25.
Sales of the football game are 14% lower this October compared to what last year's version managed over the same time period. We have another new game at No.3 in the form of Dragon Ball: Sparkling! Zero by Bandai Namco.
It's been a real breakout hit so far, with sales for the first four weeks being 80% up over the previous best, 2020's Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Just behind Dragon Ball is another big October success story in Undisputed by Steel City Interactive and Plaion. The game began life as a small indie title being created by three brothers, and has gone on to secure numerous major boxing licenses. It's the second biggest sports game release of the year, ahead of F1 24, NBA 2K25 and EA Sports College Football 25 (but behind EA Sports FC 25).
And as a fighting game, it's even managed to outperform Tekken 8, which released earlier this year. Another new game at No.4 is Silent Hill 2.
It's a solid launch for the remake of the classic horror game, although doesn't quite reach the heights of other recent horror remakes. Launch sales are 32% lower than what the Dead Space remake managed in 2023, and 62% lower than the remake of Resident Evil 4 (also released in 2023). New from Nintendo is Super Mario Party Jamboree at No.
9. Sales up 11% over 2018's Super Mario Party but 4% down over 2021's Mario Party Superstars (based on first two weeks of sales). Nintendo doesn't share digital data with the charts company, so this date is purely physical unit sales.
Finally, at No.10 we have Sonic X Shadows Generations from Sega. The game did a lot better than last year's 2D entry Sonic Superstars (launch sales up 150%), but is down 21% over the launch of 2022's Sonic Frontiers.
Elsewhere, Metaphor: Refantazio debuts at No.12 and the Until Dawn remake comes in at No.30.
Over in hardware, sales of games consoles rose 14% month-on-month with just under 144,000 devices sold, NielsenIQ/GfK data reveals. However, sales are down 18% over October 2023. Sales of PS5 consoles rose 27% month-on-month but was 18% down year-on-year.
Switch sales increased 13% month-on-month but dropped 18% year-on-year, while Xbox Series consoles fell 7% month-on-month and dropped nearly 17% year-on-year. Elsewhere, 681,000 accessories were sold across the UK last month, which was over 8% down over September but up nearly 16% over October 2023. PlayStation controllers continue to dominate the top two positions (White at No.
1 this month and Midnight Black at No.2), while the PlayStation Portal continues to do good numbers, rising four places to No.4.
UK GSD September 2024 Top 10 (Digital and Physical) *Digital data unavailable GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via PC digital stores, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, CD Projekt, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Sabre Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Kepler, 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.
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