European players continue to actively spend money on games. Sales in the region remained strong in the first half of 2024 despite a slight decline compared to the same period last year.
EA Sports FC 24
PC and console game sales in Europe reached almost 80 million units in the first six months of 2024, according to new data from GSD (via GamesIndustry.biz) — down 1.6% year-over-year.
The main reason for the decline is a lack of major AAA releases. The first half of 2023 saw several global hits like Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo IV, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. For comparison, only two games in the top 10 best-selling titles of 2024 have been launched this year: Helldivers 2 and The Last of Us Part II: Remastered.
It is worth noting that GSD collects information about digital sales only from participating companies (mostly major publishers and developers). So its charts don’t have indie teams like Pocketpair, which has already sold over 15 million copies of Palworld on Steam alone, or some established studios like Larian (Baldur’s Gate 3).
Here are GSD’s top 10 best-selling games across Europe for the first half of 2024:
- EA Sports FC 24
- Helldivers 2 (new)
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
- Fallout 4
- It Takes Two
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- The Last of Us Part II: Remastered (new)
According to GSD, 2.2 million consoles were sold in Europe in the first six months of 2024 — down 24% year-over-year. Xbox Series X|S saw the biggest decline at 37%, followed by Nintendo Switch (32%) and PlayStation 5 (16%).
Looking at data on other regions, US consumers spent over $20 billion on video game content in the first five months of 2024 — up 6% year-over-year (via Circana). However, hardware sales fell 30% to $1.52 billion.