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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

3.5 million video games were sold across the UK last month, a slight rise of nearly 1% over the year before (GSD data).

The best-selling game by a country mile was EA Sports FC 24. It's a strong launch for the game, with sales only down 8% over last year's FIFA 23. It was expected that there would be some decline due to the rebranding, plus the fact last year's FIFA launch was particularly strong. EA's dominance of the football game genre looks set to continue even without the FIFA IP.

The second best-selling game of the month belongs to Xbox's Starfield. After four weeks the game is narrowly behind Forza Horizon 5's launch in terms of sales, which remains the fastest-selling first-party Xbox game this generation (note: Forza Horizon 5 was also available on Xbox One). Of course, both games were available upon release in the subscription service Game Pass, so the true scale of their success is not purely about how many copies it sold. Two-thirds of the Starfield's unit sales were on PC.

There's another new game at No.3 in the form of Mortal Kombat 1. The Warner Bros game's first three weeks on sale are down 24% compared with the opening of Mortal Kombat 11. Mortal Kombat has an audience in the UK, but the title's popularity is typically much stronger in North America.

In fourth place is another new game in NBA 2K24. The 2K Games sports title didn't do as well as last year's version, with sales down 26% year-on-year. Again, NBA is a title that focuses on the US market.

There are two other new games in the charts. Plaion's Payday 3 makes No.6. It looks like a steady launch for the game, although the data doesn't go back far enough to compare to 2013's Payday 2.

And finally The Crew Motorfest crosses the finishing line at No.9. The Ubisoft racer also had a weaker launch than its predecessor. For the first three weeks, unit sales are down 30% compared with the launch of The Crew 2, which launched in June 2018.

Console hardware continues to deliver

Game console sales jumped 44% in the UK during September (compared with August), driven by strong sales of all consoles and particularly the Xbox Series S and X (GfK panel data).

The Xbox platforms benefitted from the release of Starfield, with sales up 136% month-on-month. The Series X SKU was narrowly the most popular version last month, ahead of the Series S 512GB edition by just 100 units. The new 1TB Series S console was the third best-selling Xbox SKU.

Xbox Series S and X was the second most popular platform behind PlayStation 5, which also enjoyed a good month with sales up 24% over August.

Nintendo Switch fell to third position in September, but it was still a decent month for Nintendo's ageing platform, with sales up 18% over August.

In terms of accessories, 663,208 add-on products were sold in the UK last month, which is up 17.3% over August, but down 11.6% over September last year (GfK panel data).


The DualSense White retains its place as the UK's best-selling accessory. Strong sales of Xbox consoles has resulted in strong sales of Xbox controllers, with the Black Xbox Wireless Controller up five places to No.2, the White variant up five places to No.4, and the Pulse Red edition up six places to No.5. In total, there are six Xbox controllers in the Top Ten best-selling accessories for September.

UK GSD September 2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)​

Position	Title
1	EA Sports FC 24 (EA)
2	Starfield (Microsoft)
3	Mortal Kombat 1 (Warner Bros)
4	NBA 2K24 (2K Games)
5	Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
6	Payday 3 (Plaion)
7	Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
8	Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
9	Minecraft (Mojang)
10	The Crew Motorfest (Ubisoft)

Year to date numbers versus 2022 in the UK from InstallBase

Jan-Sep 2023 vs 2022
PS5 - 575k - 364k (+58%)
NSW - 295k - 284k (+4%)
XBS - 269k - 270k (-0.4%)

2022 total
NSW - 880k
PS5 - 800k
XBS - 720k

Estimate total 2023
PS5 - 1.25M
NSW - 800k
XBS - 750k

 

[Flutta]

Best deal in gaming!!

 

[Mownoc]

Would prefer they gave YoY increase than month-over-month as then we have something to more directly compare to the USA/EU figures we were given. So in Starfield month we have, USA up less than 10% YoY, EU Down 35% YoY, UK up 136% compared to August. Reads very weirdly! Starfield sold consoles in the UK but seemingly not anywhere else.

edit: Chris has now given YoY by saying Xbox is basically Flat.

So September 2023 vs September 2022:
USA - up less than 10%
UK - Flat
EU (excluding UK+Germany) - Down 35%
Japan - Down 48% (August 28th to October 1st Period)

 

[Dick Jones]

Do we count or ignore physical sales in the UK now?

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

7	Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
8	Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)

The way RDR2 keeps selling so much yet they just don't care for a PS5 version is insane to me.

 

[jm89]

These were the estimates from install base for august 2023

PS5: 82k
NSW: 27K
XB: 26k

So for September 2023

PS5: 102K
NSW: 32K
XB: 61k

 

[Ozriel]

Would prefer they gave YoY increase than month-over-month as then we have something to more directly compare to the USA/EU figures we were given. So in Starfield month we have, USA up less than 10% YoY, EU Down 35% YoY, UK up 136% compared to August. Reads very weirdly!

Weird post. Month-on-month is by far the better way to visualize a game’s impact on console sales.

You should be wishing we had month-on-month data for the USA/EU.

Starfield sold consoles in the UK but seemingly not anywhere else.

Not what the data says.

 

[Mownoc]

These were the estimates from install base for august 2023

PS5: 82k
NSW: 27K
XB: 26k

So for September 2023

PS5: 102K
NSW: 32K
XB: 61k

Looks like the estimates in the install-base thread for this month are:

Estimates:
PS5 - 102K
XBS - 54K

PS5 (+53%) YoY
XBS (-13%) YoY

So even with a +136% Month-over-Month increase still down YoY for the month according to them. Really shows how terrible 2023 compared to 2022 has been if that is the case.

 

[Heisenberg007]

EU data. YoY.
UK data. WoW.

 

[jm89]

Looks like the estimates in the install-base thread for this month are:

Estimates:
PS5 - 102K
XBS - 54K

PS5 (+53%) YoY
XBS (-13%) YoY

So even with a +136% Month-over-Month increase still down YoY for the month according to them. Really shows how terrible 2023 compared to 2022 has been if that is the case.

Oh ok, i just used the month on month increase.

Did chris specify the YOY for september? Can't see it in the article.

 

[Mownoc]

Oh ok, i just used the month on month increase.

Did chris specify the YOY for september? Can't see it in the article.

No the YoY is from the install-base estimates not official.

 

[Ozriel]

Clearly XBS sales have fallen off a cliff this year.

Puts into perspective how crazy the decision was to increase console prices this year.

They really need to be in price cut territory soon or go with discounts.

No special edition console for Starfield also made no sense.

 

[demigod]

Do we count or ignore physical sales in the UK now?

They will count it now until next month when forza is nowhere to be seen and starfield drops off a cliff.

 

[Mownoc]

Weird post. Month-on-month is by far the better way to visualize a game’s impact on console sales.

You should be wishing we had month-on-month data for the USA/EU.


Not what the data says.

You are correct that month-on-month is a better visualisation of how a game launch impacted sales. YoY is better for judging a consoles trajectory/momentum. Ideally we'd get both MoM and YoY for all regions. Not sure why gamebiz decides to randomly give YoY or MoM or sometimes nothing at all.

 

[Ozriel]

Do we count or ignore physical sales in the UK now?

They will count it now until next month when forza is nowhere to be seen and starfield drops off a cliff.

If the analysis includes PC numbers for Starfield, doesn’t that imply digital sales are embedded in this chart?
The narrative around FIFA/FC24 drop being solely attributed to name change/rebranding also insinuates these numbers are physical + digital

 

[Ozriel]

Ideally we'd get both MoM and YoY for all regions. Not sure why gamebiz decides to randomly give YoY or MoM or sometimes nothing at all.

Different data sources.

US data comes from Circana, and references Mat Piscella
The UK data comes from GSD.

 

[demigod]

Weird post. Month-on-month is by far the better way to visualize a game’s impact on console sales.

You should be wishing we had month-on-month data for the USA/EU.



Not what the data says.

You are correct that month-on-month is a better visualisation of how a game launch impacted sales. YoY is better for judging a consoles trajectory/momentum. Ideally we'd get both MoM and YoY for all regions. Not sure why gamebiz decides to randomly give YoY or MoM or sometimes nothing at all.

Month on month is not better. Less console sales during Summer. Then console sales spike during holidays. YoY is better.

 

[GHG]

After four weeks the game is narrowly behind Forza Horizon 5's launch in terms of sales, which remains the fastest-selling first-party Xbox game this generation (note: Forza Horizon 5 was also available on Xbox One). Of course, both games were available upon release in the subscription service Game Pass, so the true scale of their success is not purely about how many copies it sold.

Two-thirds of the Starfield’s unit sales were on PC.

Seems like we now have an indication regarding sales splits.

And for anyone wondering, YOY for September is flat for Xbox hardware:

 

[Ozriel]

Month on month is not better. Less console sales during Summer. Then console sales spike during holidays. YoY is better.

September isn’t exactly lumped in with the ‘holidays’ sales months. And If you want to figure out the impact of a single game on hardware, YoY isn’t apt at all, since it doesn’t really show deviation from an existing, recent trend.
As you say, month on month would probably not work if we’re talking about the likes of November, December or January.

 

[GHG]

September isn’t exactly lumped in with the ‘holidays’ sales months. And If you want to figure out the impact of a single game on hardware, YoY isn’t apt at all, since it doesn’t really show deviation from an existing, recent trend.
As you say, month on month would probably not work if we’re talking about the likes of November, December or January.

YoY is an important measure because it's indicative of broader trends.

 

[Ozriel]

YoY is an important measure because it's indicative of broader trends.

Never said otherwise.
The broader trends in this case is precisely what I mentioned above

Clearly XBS sales have fallen off a cliff this year.

Puts into perspective how crazy the decision was to increase console prices this year.

They really need to be in price cut territory soon or go with discounts.

Much of The market seems to have turned away from Xbox hardware, and MS will certainly need dedicated action to try to reverse that, including possibly price actions or more interesting discounts. Clearly the 1TB Series S isn’t it at all.

 

[AALLx]

Is it safe to say that Xbox hardware is down YoY internationally during Starfield month?

 

[demigod]

September isn’t exactly lumped in with the ‘holidays’ sales months. And If you want to figure out the impact of a single game on hardware, YoY isn’t apt at all, since it doesn’t really show deviation from an existing, recent trend.
As you say, month on month would probably not work if we’re talking about the likes of November, December or January.

I didn’t say September was with the holidays. I said Summer sells less consoles, when kids are out of school. July and August, console sales are down. It picks back up in September.

 

[Mownoc]

Is it safe to say that Xbox hardware is down YoY internationally during Starfield month?

Pretty much. Not sure USA sales of "single digit" percentage increase from 2022 will be enough to counteract being flat or down everywhere else even with Xbox's stronger skew to that region. At the very best it's flat YoY globally.

USA - up less than 10%
UK - Flat
EU (excluding UK+Germany) - Down 35%
Japan - Down 48% (August 28th to October 1st Period) (about 19k less this year)

 

[RGB'D]

Never said otherwise.
The broader trends in this case is precisely what I mentioned above



Much of The market seems to have turned away from Xbox hardware, and MS will certainly need dedicated action to try to reverse that, including possibly price actions or more interesting discounts. Clearly the 1TB Series S isn’t it at all.

They should probably go grab the most popular IP and put that into gamepass... duh duh duh

 

[Horseganador]

So a 2:1 in favor of PS5 in Starfield month in the UK.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Seems like we now have an indication regarding sales splits.

And for anyone wondering, YOY for September is flat for Xbox hardware:

"In the UK, Xbox sales for September 2022 vs September 2023 are flat"

So...another country where Starfield did nothing for hardware when compared to the previous year. Interesting.

 

[AALLx]

Pretty much. Not sure USA sales of "single digit" percentage increase from 2022 will be enough to counteract being flat or down everywhere else even with Xbox's stronger skew to that region. At the very best it's flat YoY globally.

USA - up less than 10%
UK - Flat
EU (excluding UK+Germany) - Down 35%
Japan - Down 48% (August 28th to October 1st Period) (about 19k less this year)

According to other site's estimates, Xbox YoY for September is -13%.

Dring: "Flat, not great, not terrible."

 

[Woopah]

"In the UK, Xbox sales for September 2022 vs September 2023 are flat"

So...another country where Starfield did nothing for hardware when compared to the previous year. Interesting.

Seems like Starfield's main impact was to stop Xbox being as down YoY as it has been the rest of 2023.

With most of its sales being on PC, its effect on Xbox hardware has been muted.

 

[gokurho]

Good bye James Ryan
This is the power of engagement
UK is my country

 

[DenchDeckard]

Starfield is a beast!

 

[AALLx]

Starfield is a beast!

It eats consoles for breakfast!

 

[demigod]

Seems like we now have an indication regarding sales splits.

And for anyone wondering, YOY for September is flat for Xbox hardware:

Do we have any numbers on Fifa 23 last year?

 

[GHG]

Copying and pasting posts now are we?

Starfield is a beast!

Starfield is a beast!

 

[Thirty7ven]

MS has to cut the price of Xbox unless they’ve already quit on the gen.

The thing is if they haven’t indeed quit, then I don’t see how losing this gen harder than the last one will help GP growth or next gen. If the last gen was the worst one to lose how is losing this one by more not going to make matters worse?

The headlines read MS bought ABK, but on the ground Xbox is being very passive imo.

 

[Varteras]

Copying and pasting posts now are we?

Lmao 9am est yesterday. 6am est today. This motherfucker on the clock? "Time to post my obligatory, cookie cutter Starfield praise before the boss yells at me".

 

[H-I-M]

The PS5 still on top (where it belongs) even on Starfield month.

We LOVE to see it.

 

[Mownoc]

So a 2:1 in favor of PS5 in Starfield month in the UK.

If it's sold almost double in Starfield month imagine what it'll do in Spiderman month.

 

[Horseganador]

If it's sold almost double in Starfield month imagine what it'll do in Spiderman month.

It is also down 13% in sales compared to September last year, a fact that Chris has decided "not to give."

 

[Mr Moose]

If the analysis includes PC numbers for Starfield, doesn’t that imply digital sales are embedded in this chart?
The narrative around FIFA/FC24 drop being solely attributed to name change/rebranding also insinuates these numbers are physical + digital

Yes, monthly charts include digital.
2/3 of Starfields sales were PC in the UK.

 

[Pelta88]

damn

 

[H-I-M]

Looks like the estimates in the install-base thread for this month are:

Estimates:
PS5 - 102K
XBS - 54K

PS5 (+53%) YoY
XBS (-13%) YoY

So even with a +136% Month-over-Month increase still down YoY for the month according to them. Really shows how terrible 2023 compared to 2022 has been if that is the case.

"In the UK, Xbox sales for September 2022 vs September 2023 are flat"

So...another country where Starfield did nothing for hardware when compared to the previous year. Interesting.

I was almost starting to believe that there was hope for Xbox...

Now that we have the full picture (and not just random +1000000%) it makes more sense and shows a similar tendency as in the rest of the world.

 

[ReBurn]

Looks like losing the FIFA license wasn't as bad as it could have been.

 

[systemr123]

So a 2:1 in favor of PS5 in Starfield month in the UK.

That’s not how it reads, but that is what it is. Seems Starfield created a minor boost in sales, but percentage wise it’s huge.

Also, probably everyone who wanted to buy a console for Starfield did it by now so the increased number will not stick I think.

 

[Reckheim]

If starfield didn't significantly improve their hardware sales; I'm not sure what will. I don't really see any games in their future that have that type of pedigree.

 

[Unknown?]

Weird post. Month-on-month is by far the better way to visualize a game’s impact on console sales.

You should be wishing we had month-on-month data for the USA/EU.



Not what the data says.

No it's not, unless you know trends. IE does September always have better sells than August.

 

[yazenov]

Yes, monthly charts include digital.
2/3 of Starfields sales were PC in the UK.

So the Xbox version of Starfield only sold 33%? Good lord, the PC is carrying most of the software sales.

No wonder it's effect on the Xbox hardware sales is minimal.

 

[Reckheim]

So the Xbox version of Starfield only sold 33%? Good lord, the PC is carrying most of the software sales.

which is understandable. I'd say 70% of people that own an xbox are gamepass subscribers, hence the hardware sales are important metric when looking at sales.

Doesn't look like MS is getting the gamepass retention on pc they thought they would get.

 

[ReBurn]

So the Xbox version of Starfield only sold 33%? Good lord, the PC is carrying most of the software sales.

Which is why Microsoft releases software day 1 on PC. Software is where the profit is. They don't have to sell as many consoles to make money.

 

[Ronin_7]

These were the estimates from install base for august 2023

PS5: 82k
NSW: 27K
XB: 26k

So for September 2023

PS5: 102K
NSW: 32K
XB: 61k

DAMN Nintendo is pretty much done in the UK I see.

Until Switch 2 of course