When it comes to taking stock of sales, it must be remembered each year: Europe is complicated. Please note that the information on the Games Industry site is based on incomplete data. In detail, boxed game sales are counted in 15 countries, compared to 32 countries for download game sales, while console sales are based on a sample of only 10 countries. Which is better than nothing. The context being set, there are 159 million console and PC games sold in Europe for the year 2022, a decrease of 7% compared to 2021. 82.5 million games were sold for download, compared to 76.6 million for physical sales. Note that we are talking about games from the main publishers and not the countless independent games. Moreover, digital sales of Nintendo games are still missing.
Sony places its exclusives, double box of Pokémon for Nintendo
Focusing only on what’s new in 2022, game sales are up 16% from what’s new in 2021. FIFA 23 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are the main drivers with sales up 3% from FIFA 22 and 73% from Call of Duty: Vanguard. Sensation of the year, Elden Ring offers itself a place on the podium in the company of these two essential licenses. The other big news for 2022 are Pokémon Legends: Arceus (6th), God of War Ragnarok (7th), LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (8th), Horizon Forbidden West (9th) and Gran Turismo 7 (10th).
If we can only underline the performance of PlayStation Studios which sign a nice hat-trick, Nintendo remains of course a major contributor, whether with Nintendo Switch Sports (12th), Pokémon Purple (14th), Pokémon Scarlet (16th) or even Kirby and the forgotten world (19th). Note also that the Pokémon tandem would be 6th in the ranking if we combined the two flavors, and again it is without counting on download sales that Nintendo does not communicate. Purple/Scarlet sales are also up 8% over the Sword/Shield duo.
A little relief for those who do not like the galloping growth of downloads, this has fallen slightly in 2022. Counting only games sold both physically and digitally, 64% of sales were made in download, which represents a drop compared to the 65% of 2021. Nintendo has undoubtedly had a lot to do with this momentum of resistance, but the boxes have therefore not said their last word.
Brexit or not, the United Kingdom remains the biggest video game market in Europe, even with game sales down 6% in 2022. Germany has kept its second place despite sales down 13%, while France completes the podium with a smaller drop of 3%. FIFA 23 finished best-selling in most European countries with the exception of Finland which devoted Elden Ring. France and Germany are the strongest markets for Nintendo games, which is a little further back across the Channel.
Europe poorly served by PlayStation 5
Following on from what we saw in the UK, 2022 was a very sad year for console sales in Europe. If the decline in sales of Switch (- 15%) is not deeply abnormal for a machine of this age, the lack of stocks of the PS5 and the Xbox Series has still been felt far too much on the Old Continent . This is particularly true for the PS5, whose sales have fallen by 35% compared to 2021, while the Xbox Series is the only console to have done better than last year with an increase of 4.4%. The Microsoft console nevertheless remains at the bottom of the ranking, far from the PS5 which itself ends a good distance from the Switch. The Nintendo console won in most of the countries concerned, except in Denmark and Sweden (two points for the PS5) as well as in Norway (a victory for the Xbox Series).
Finally, the accessories segment reports 18 million products sold in 2022, an annual decline of 10%. The DualSense controller of the PS5 (+ 12%) is the best-selling accessory of the year ahead of the DualShock 4 controller of the PS4 (- 3.2%), the Joy-Con of the Switch (- 24%) and the Xbox Series controller (-32%). Excluding the controller, the best-selling accessory of the year was the Pulse 3D wireless headset for PS5 (-4%).
