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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

European GSD H1 2023 Top 20 (Digital + Physical)​

Position	Title
1	Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
2	Diablo 4 (Activision Blizzard)
3	FIFA 23 (EA)
4	The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
5	Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
6	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard)
7	Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
8	Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (EA)
9	NBA 2K23 (2K Games)
10	Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
11	God of War Ragnarok (Sony)
12	Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
13	Dead Island 2 (Deep Silver)
14	The Last of Us: Part 2 (Sony)
15	Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft)
16	Final Fantasy 16 (Square Enix)
17	Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)
18	Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo)*
19	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
20	Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar)

* Digital data unavailable

Hogwarts Legacy and Diablo 4 lead Europe's half year games charts

Diablo 4 is already the year's second biggest game

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

76.1 million console and PC games were sold across Europe during the first half of the year, which is marginally up over the same period in 2022.

The UK was the biggest European market for game sales, representing 15.3 million games sold, a rise of 5.5% over the same period in 2022. This is followed by Germany with 14 million games sold (down 11%) and then France with 11.1 million sales (up 8%). Spain delivered 5.4 million game sales (up 6.8%), while Italy is just behind with 4.9 million (up 2.7%).

Overall 29.1 million physical games were sold across Europe, a drop of 9% year-on-year. 47 million games were sold via digital download stores, which is a rise of 7%.

This is based on GSD data, and includes physical game sold in major European markets, and digital game sales from almost all major publishers across every European country (Nintendo the notable absentee here). Digital games from indie developers and publishers are also not included. For full details on what is counted, check the foot of the article.

Overall, it was a strong half of the year for the big brands. Diablo 4, despite only being on sale for a few weeks when this data was counted, is already the third biggest game of the year. Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at No.4 sold 13% more copies than Pokémon Legends: Arceus managed during the first half of last year (note: Pokémon launched in January, while Zelda arrived in May). Nintendo doesn't share digital data with GSD, so Zelda performance is purely based on physical sales.

It was a strong year for FIFA 23, too. For the first half of the year, EA's football game sold 24% more units than FIFA 22 managed during the same period.

Delving a little deeper, the best-selling digital game of the first six months was Hogwarts Legacy, but the best-selling physical game was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Hogwarts was No.1 in the big European countries of UK, France, Germany and Italy, although lost out to FIFA in Spain. The Harry Potter spin-off is unsurprisingly most popular in the UK, and the game's sales during the period are over 124% bigger than the UK's second biggest game, which was FIFA 23.

By comparison, in Germany Hogwarts is 14% bigger than the second best-selling game, which was Diablo 4. And in France, the Warner Bros game is 17% bigger than the country's No.2 game, which was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Hogwarts Legacy and Diablo 4 lead Europe's half year games charts

Diablo 4 is already the year's second biggest game

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[lh032]

ngl, hogwart legacy is really repetitive, i enjoyed during the first 12 hours but after then it went downhill.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Very surprised by RDR2 being above big new comers like Jedi Survivor and Resident Evil 4; TLOU Part 2 was also boosted nicely by the HBO show and it charted the top 14.

 

[elcapitano]

TLOU2 doing a madness for a 1 SKU - 3 year old game.

Release the PC version and a PS5 version while they're at it please.

 

[llgood]

That insane website still trying to pretend it doesnt exist. Anyway, happy for Hogwarts. ITs a great first game and im sure a sequel will improve in many ways.

 

[Disco Dave]

 

[kazuyamishima]

TLOU part II is around the 15m. mark.

Are some people still saying that it underperformed??

Also, GOW:R might be well over 15m by now.

 

[Ozriel]

I did not imagine an NBA game (in its second year) outselling RE4 Remake and FFXVI in Europe.

 

[JaksGhost]

I did not imagine an NBA game (in its second year) outselling RE4 Remake and FFXVI in Europe.

Deep, deep, deep discounts plus FFXVI only had around 2 weeks of tracking. If this was NPD XVI would probably be ahead due to revenue.

 

[ergem]

FFXVI only had a week in H1.

 

[Roufianos]

ngl, hogwart legacy is really repetitive, i enjoyed during the first 12 hours but after then it went downhill.

I love Harry Potter but man, that game became a slog after a while. An amazing world ruined by Ubisoft quality game design.

 

[Fake]

HL doing great as usual.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Who is still buying GTAV?

 

[Spaceman292]

Who is still buying GTAV?

Children. There's always more children.

 

[skit_data]

ngl, hogwart legacy is really repetitive, i enjoyed during the first 12 hours but after then it went downhill.

+1
There's also way too much loot, it doesn't feel rewarding to get equipment because you know you'll get something better in the next 5 mins. I actually dropped the game half way through because FF16 released and I feel no urge to pick it up again.

 

[GymWolf]

That's fake, i just saw the list on reeeeee and hogwarts wasn't even in top 100 , let alone first place.

What game are you playing, OP?

 

[DeepEnigma]

7	Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)

 

[mckmas8808]

I did not imagine an NBA game (in its second year) outselling RE4 Remake and FFXVI in Europe.

Europeans love NBA basketball now. I love it. Thanks to Luka, Giannis, and Nikola Jokić.

 

[Ozriel]

Europeans love NBA basketball now. I love it. Thanks to Luka, Giannis, and Nikola Jokić.

Feels like the world’s changing. I think FIFA also charts in top 10 for North America.

I’ll eat my hat if Madden ever gets popular outside the US

 

[The artful mincer]

TLOU part II is around the 15m. mark.

Are some people still saying that it underperformed??

Also, GOW:R might be well over 15m by now.

How did you get to those numbers please?

 

[Captain Toad]

Cancel Europe

 

[StereoVsn]

7	Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)

They only sold 60 million copies. You can't expect them to afford a proper XSX/PS5 patch on such a shoestring profit, do you?

 

[mckmas8808]

Feels like the world’s changing. I think FIFA also charts in top 10 for North America.

I’ll eat my hat if Madden ever gets popular outside the US

Yeah, that'll never happen.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Hogwarts Legacy will definitely spawn more Harry Potter games (from various studios), especially with the tv series coming up. One of my work colleagues even bought a console for their very first time because they all wanted to play a Harry Potter game. Now imagine a quidditch or some other multiplayer game for the entire family - it will sell equally big even if the quality isn't exactly there.

 

[Woopah]

Hogwarts Legacy will definitely spawn more Harry Potter games (from various studios), especially with the tv series coming up. One of my work colleagues even bought a console for their very first time because they all wanted to play a Harry Potter game. Now imagine a quidditch or some other multiplayer game for the entire family - it will sell equally big even if the quality isn't exactly there.

Give me Quidditch World Cup 2.

 

[MrA]

Hogwarts Legacy will definitely spawn more Harry Potter games (from various studios), especially with the tv series coming up. One of my work colleagues even bought a console for their very first time because they all wanted to play a Harry Potter game. Now imagine a quidditch or some other multiplayer game for the entire family - it will sell equally big even if the quality isn't exactly there.

I heard some studionjust released a golem game, that means they're free to work on another fantasy project

 

[Flabagast]

ngl, hogwart legacy is really repetitive, i enjoyed during the first 12 hours but after then it went downhill.

100% agree. The first hours are very promising and it is visually gorgeous, but the game does not manage to hold interest very long.

The main culprit would be the writing imho. Story, characters & dialogues all together are very weak and thus the rest of the game can't compensate for it.