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[jm89]

Hardware (Month on Month)
1. PS5 -19%
2. Switch +39%
3. Xbox Series +6%

6.9 million digital and physical games were sold in the UK during December, an increase of 2% over the same period in 2022.

This is based on GSD data, which tracks all physical game sales plus digital game sales from most major publishers.

It's a strong result when you consider November and December didn't feature too many big new releases. EA Sports FC 24 reclaimed No.1 for the month, and was boosted by some pre-Christmas sales activity.

November's No.1, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, falls to No.2 in its second month on sale. Meanwhile, Hogwarts Legacy and Super Mario Bros Wonder were particularly popular Christmas titles, as both games saw a big jump in sales month-on-month. It was the strongest month for Nintendo's new Mario game since it released in October.

There was one new game in the December charts, which was Ubisoft's Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, which debuts at No.8.

According to GfK panel figures, just short of 500,000 games consoles were sold in the UK during December, which is 2% up over November and 7% up over the same time last year.

PS5 was the No.1 console once again, but sales did fall 19% over the month before. Nintendo Switch is the No.2 format with a sales spike of 39% over November, with Xbox Series S and X at No.3 with sales up 6% month-on-month.

In terms of accessories, 2.07 million add-on products were sold during December, which is a huge 63% jump over November and 10% up over the same period last year. Strong console sales meant that controllers dominated the charts, let by the White (No.1) and Midnight Black (No.2) DualSense controller. Strong sales of PS4 in December saw the DualShock 4 re-enter the Top Ten at No.7.

UK GSD December 2023 Top 10 (Digital and Physical)​

Position	Title
1	EA Sports FC 24 (EA)
2	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)
3	Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
4	Super Mario Bros Wonder (Nintendo)*
5	Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
6	Spider-Man 2 (Sony)
7	Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
8	Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Ubisoft)
9	Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
10	Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo)*

*Digital data unavailable

 

[Luminoth-4545]

This is what i had for November

PS5 - 240k
XBS - 132k
NSW - 113k

Total - 485k

For December we get this from MOM percentages:

PS5 - 194k (-19%%)
NSW - 157k (+39%)
XBS - 140k (+6%)

Total - 491k (+2%)

If we add October's estimates of 95k PS5, 41k XBS and 37k NSW then for FY Q3 (Oct, Nov & Dec) we get these totals:

PS5 - 529k
XBS - 313k
NSW - 307k

Total - 1149k

 

[Tsaki]

Did Sony have any price promotions in December? Because with the new models they would be selling this much with a higher MSRP than their console launch, over 3 years ago.

 

[jm89]

Did Sony have any price promotions in December? Because with the new models they would be selling this much with a higher MSRP than their console launch, over 3 years ago.

In the UK you only had a few retailers doing random light weight deals here and there. Like one small retailer reduced the price by £10 or another retailer bundled in a game. Nothing major like the discounts xbox had.

 

[Elios83]

PS5: 196K
NSW: 155K
XBS: 142K

Even with all the crazy deals on Xbox for the whole month while Sony didn't do anything major in December (unlike November when they had good deals to get rid of the old fat units), Xbox can't win a single month.
2024 will be brutal for them.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

All those Xbox promos against a PS5 more expensive than in 2020 and to still come out last is…something.

 

[jroc74]

I honestly have no idea what MS can do at this point.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Series consoles are up? It's win I do wonder why Playstation sales are down? They did not have promotions? Or was it only for November?

Though it tells that probably they really need to lower Series prices to sell it.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

 

[kazuyamishima]

The only console that didn’t had any promotions during December was the PS5, so decent sales.

 

[Interfectum]

I honestly have no idea what MS can do at this point.

Port their games to other consoles that people actually want is what they can and will do.

 

[Roufianos]

You have to question how much Ubisoft were relying on Avatar, which seems like a huge bomb, and Mirage which seems to have sold well but not spectacular.

 

[Horseganador]

 

[Luminoth-4545]

As expected Switch had the biggest percentage gain over November, Nintendo hardware generally overperforms in December due to it being perceived as more of a "kid friendly" gift.

 

[Godot25]

This is what i had for November

PS5 - 240k
XBS - 132k
NSW - 113k

Total - 486k

For December we get this from MOM percentages:

PS5 - 194k (-19%%)
NSW - 157k (+39%)
XBS - 140k (+6%)

Total - 491k

If we add October's numbers of 95k PS5, 41k XBS and 37k NSW then for Q3 (Oct, Nov & Dec) we get these totals:

PS5 - 529k
XBS - 313k
NSW - 307k

Total - 1149k

140k for dead console?
Microsoft better pull out from console making immediately

/s

 

[Ozriel]

The only console that didn’t had any promotions during December was the PS5, so decent sales.

Technically, Slim + Spiderman 2/COD for the same price as a regular console is a significant promotion.

I honestly have no idea what MS can do at this point.

Put out really good games the market wants at a steady cadence, drum up marketing (including marketing deals for third party games) and run with competitive pricing.
they don’t need to be first place to be successful. Just be relatively competitive.

Port their games to other consoles that people actually want is what they can and will do.

That would most certainly worsen sales of their console that people actually want. So, no.

 

[kyussman]

I honestly have no idea what MS can do at this point.

Make some compelling must play games......seems to work well for Nintendo and PlayStation.......dross like Starfield ain't gonna cut it.

 

[twilo99]

140k for dead console?
Microsoft better pull out from console making immediately

/s

They were obviously giving them away for zero £

 

[jm89]

Technically, Slim + Spiderman 2/COD for the same price as a regular console is a significant promotion.

In the UK during december?

I only saw that promotion in the USA in december.

 

[Fake]

HL kicking everyone ass.

Spidey losing to GTAV?

 

[kazuyamishima]

Technically, Slim + Spiderman 2/COD for the same price as a regular console is a significant promotion.

That was/is in the US. There weren’t any promotion in the UK.

140k for dead console?
Microsoft better pull out from console making immediately

/s

Context is key, the 360 did almost 10m. units sold in the UK, and Xbox Series X consoles were as low as £349 for December 2023 against the £479 PS5.

 

[Interfectum]

Make some compelling must play games......seems to work well for Nintendo and PlayStation.......dross like Starfield ain't gonna cut it.

We are way too deep into this generation for MS to have any kind of turn around, even if they put out some must play games. Sony is going to keep their momentum going and Switch 2 is around the corner. There really isn't much room for Xbox Series consoles to make great headway.

 

[MrTired]

140k for dead console?
Microsoft better pull out from console making immediately

/s

Xbox Series sold around 570k this year in the UK. The corresponding point the Xbox One lifecycle it sold over a 1 million units.

 

[DForce]

140k for dead console?
Microsoft better pull out from console making immediately

/s

You would have said the same thing if they sold it for $50.

XS consoles had major discounts and still sold 108k less than PS5. This means if they go back to their regular price, it's going to be harder to sell their consoles.

 

[BrunoCoel]

When will the December NPD results be out?

 

[Godot25]

That was/is in the US. There weren’t any promotion in the UK.


Context is key, the 360 did almost 10m. units sold in the UK, and Xbox Series X consoles were as low as £349 for December 2023 against the £479 PS5.

Which just tells you that Microsoft needs to drop price of Series X/S permanently to be more competitive...

I mean. This is telling all they need to know. General public currently values Series X at 100£ less than PS5. Which is fine. But far away from "dead console."

 

[DForce]

When will the December NPD results be out?

18th

 

[jm89]

Which just tells you that Microsoft needs to drop price of Series X/S permanently to be more competitive...

I mean. This is telling all they need to know. General public currently values Series X at 100£ less than PS5. Which is fine. But far away from "dead console."

Well MS are gonna have to take a bath on the hardware losses to keep it at that price.

What have they even done to reduce cost of the hardware since phil said they where taking $100-$200 loss?

Maybe component prices have come down enough to get that losses down further, but can't imagine it being enough to mitigate losses entirely and a further discount will just add more to those losses.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Series X still £399 on some retailers like Amazon. So it seems like an extended discount.

 

[Godot25]

Well MS are gonna have to take a bath on the hardware losses to keep it at that price.

What have they even done to reduce cost of the hardware since phil said they where taking $100-$200 loss?

Maybe component prices have come down enough to get that losses down further, but can't imagine it being enough to mitigate losses entirely and a further discount will just add more to those losses.

Of course. It's their choice at the end of the day.

But on the other hand let's not pretend that Sony is swimming in profits on PS5 sales. Especially since they also had pretty nice discounts on consoles and also they have to pay 20-35£ from every Spider-Man 2 PS5 bundle to Marvel and god knows how much to Microsoft for every Modern Warfare 3 PS5 bundle.

 

[jroc74]

Which just tells you that Microsoft needs to drop price of Series X/S permanently to be more competitive...

I mean. This is telling all they need to know. General public currently values Series X at 100£ less than PS5. Which is fine. But far away from "dead console."

Yeah, I mean MS can afford bigger losses per console sold, might as well take bigger losses just to compete.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

You have to question how much Ubisoft were relying on Avatar, which seems like a huge bomb, and Mirage which seems to have sold well but not spectacular.

Does Ubisoft even rely on anything at this point?

Yeah, I mean MS can afford bigger losses per console sold, might as well take bigger losses just to compete.

Well one of the reasons of Xbox 360 was indeed that it was 200$ cheaper than PS3 at launch.

 

[yazenov]

What is the YOY for the hardware?

 

[Godot25]

Yeah, I mean MS can afford bigger losses per console sold, might as well take bigger losses just to compete.

To me logical thing would be to have non-official permanent discount on Series X and then you can get price back to official when you are expecting big-ish first-party release like Hellblade 2.

But I'm not expecting logical things from Xbox in terms of console pricing. I doubt they are willing to go to promo prices permanently.

 

[lh032]

come on sony give us playstation experience this year

 

[GHG]

Does he not realise this is a big problem?

 

[Ar¢tos]

140k for dead console?
Microsoft better pull out from console making immediately

/s

Selling about 1/4 in comparison with the same month of the previous year at a much higher loss per unit isn't exactly a win....

 

[Duchess]

Xbox Series X has been £100 cheaper than PS5 for over a month now, so no surprise that the sales are up.

 

[Horseganador]

UK Dec 2023:
PS5 ~ 196K (+31% YoY)
X/S ~ 142K (+17% YoY)

UK 2023:
PS5 ~ 1,10 m (+43% YoY)
X/S ~ 0,57 m (-20% YoY)

The UK summary is 2:1 in favor of PS5 in 2023.

 

[jm89]

come on sony give us playstation experience this year

How about a third party and indie focused state of play?

 

[kazuyamishima]

UK 2023 Estimates:
PS5: 1100k (Up YoY 42.9%)
Switch: 610k (Down YoY 30.7%)
Xbox Series Consoles: 580k (Down YoY 19.4%)

Also, UK December 2023 estimates:
PS5: 196k
Switch: 155k
Xbox Series: 142k

As a reference, UK December 2022:
Switch: 190k
PS5: 150k
Xbox Series: 120k

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

UK Dec 2023:
PS5 ~ 196K (+31% YoY)
X/S ~ 142K (+17% YoY)

UK 2023:
PS5 ~ 1,10 m (+43% YoY)
X/S ~ 0,57 m (-20% YoY)

The UK summary is 2:1 in favor of PS5 in 2023.

Really bad for Xbox considering North America and the UK are basically the only two markets where it sells anything of worth.

 

[Mr Moose]

With Series X being £370, how?

 

[Luminoth-4545]

It should be noted that my estimates are based on GfK's monthly totals and GfK track only 90% of the UK market so actual sales are likely to be 10% higher for each platform than these estimates.

Monthly estimates.

Month	PS5	XBS	NSW	Total
January	58,000	29,000	38,000	125,000
February	74,000	34,000	32,000	140,000
March	71,000	31,000	32,000	134,000
April	47,000	21,000	41,000	109,000
May	36,000	19,000	39,000	94,000
June	57,000	28,000	34,000	119,000
July	58,000	23,000	29,000	110,000
August	82,000	26,000	27,000	135,000
September	102,000	61,000	32,000	195,000
October	95,000	41,000	37,000	173,000
November	240,000	132,000	113,000	486,000
December	194,000	140,000	157,000	491,000
2023	1,114,000	585,000	611,000	2,312,000
LTD (rounded)	3,480,000	2,470,000	6,670,000	12,620,000

PS5's lead over XBS has gone from 490k to 1.01 million over the last year. It also looks like Switch will fall short of PS4's total of 7.69 million because it will be very difficult to sell another +1 million units.

GFK(UK): CY 2022

Yearly UK Sales since 2020

2020
NSW - 1.47M
PS5 - 450K (19th Nov)
XBS - 310K (10th Nov)

2021
NSW - 1.22M
PS5 - 1.15M
XBS - 850K

2022
NSW - 880K
PS5 - 770K
XBS - 720K

2023
PS5 - 1.11M (+44% yoy)
NSW - 611K (-31% yoy)
XBS - 585K (-19% yoy)

 

[Woopah]

The strong sales for PS5 continue, and I'm pretty impressed with the legs on Mario Wonder, RDR2 and Switch Sports.

Does he not realise this is a big problem?

Does who not realise?

 

[GHG]

Does who not realise?

Whoever that John Welfare fella is.

 

[Woopah]

Whoever that John Welfare fella is.

Yes he knows it's a problem, but it's the only way for Xbox Series to have decent sales.

 

[Physiognomonics]

Wait, hasn't Spider-man 2 kinda flopped (relatively compared to SM1)?

 

[Mr Moose]

Wait, hasn't Spider-man 2 kinda flopped (relatively compared to SM1)?

There was more PS4s at the time of Spider-Man 1, it released 5 years after launch. S-M 2 is still charting high (6), no idea how it compares to the first one.

 

[DryvBy]

Xbox slashed prices, obtained COD and others, and they still came in last place. Sad.