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PS5 sales surge in January, but game sales fall | UK Monthly Charts

jm89

jm89

Member

2.24 million video games were sold across the UK during January, the latest GSD data shows.

Tracking all physical games, plus digital downloads from most major publishers (see list below), sales are down slightly on last year (a drop of 4.4%).

The main reason for the drop is January 2022 saw the huge launch of Pokémon Legends: Arceus from Nintendo. Whereas this January didn't feature such a significant game release.

FIFA 23 was No.1, with sales significantly higher than what FIFA 22 managed in January last year. GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 (No.2 and No.4) also posted higher sales in January compared to the previous year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was No.3. The game continues to perform a lot better than the previous Call of Duty (Vanguard), but sales have slowed down faster than compared with titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and the previous Modern Warfare title.

The biggest charting new release is EA's Dead Space remake, which is at No.6. The game had only been on sale a few days when this data was collected. The Dead Space remake arrives just six weeks after The Callisto Protocol, which is a similar game made by some of the original Dead Space developers. Unfortunately, we can't compare the launches of the two games as digital data for The Callisto Protocol is unavailable. However, the new IP had a stronger physical retail launch than the remake.

The next biggest new game was Fire Emblem Engage at No.12 (digital data unavailable), while Forspoken lands at No.16.
Click to expand...
PS5 sales surge in January

Overall, 125,000 consoles were sold (GfK panel data, not upweighted). PS5 was the leader, with sales up a whopping 98% over January last year, when there were significant shortages.

It’s the God of War Ragnarok editions doing the business for Sony, Gfk boss Dorian Bloch tells us. It represented 55% of PS5 volume in January. The Ragnarok standard PS5 official bundle launched in November 2022, while the digital Ragnarok edition arrived in January. It has essentially takes over from the Horizon Forbidden West official hardware bundles that ruled between May and September last year, which represented around 43% of all PS5 hardware volume during those five months.

Nintendo Switch was No.2, but continues to see sales slowdown as it heads towards its sixth anniversary. In January, 61% of Switch sales were for the OLED version, which is up from 39% in January 2022.
Click to expand...

UK GSD January 2023 Top 20 (Digital + Physical)​

PositionTitle
1FIFA 23 (EA)
2Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
3Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard)
4Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
5God of War Ragnarok (Sony)
6Dead Space (EA)
7Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
8Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar)
9NBA 2K23 (2K Games)
10Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
11LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Warner Bros)
12Fire Emblem Engage (Nintendo)*
13Sid Meier's Civlization 6 (2K Games)
14WWE 2K22 (2K Games)
15Pokémon Violet (Nintendo)*
16Forspoken (Square Enix)
17Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo)*
18Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft)
19Minecraft: Switch Edition (Mojang/Nintendo)
20Watch Dogs Legion (Ubisoft)
* Digital data unavailable

www.gamesindustry.biz

PS5 sales surge in January, but game sales fall | UK Monthly Charts

FIFA 23 is No.1
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz
 
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feynoob

feynoob

Banned
Forspoken n16
Disney River GIF
 
E

Elios83

Member
PS5 sales are expected given the significantly improved supply.

I don't know where Xbox is going, being down year on year compared to a period of shortages is a really poor result.
The Series S price is almost as low as you can get....I don't know the options they have besides starting to release some great exclusive games hoping they spur demand.
They could also reverse their bet on Series S and try to manufacture more Series X but it's risky.
 
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Rhazer Fusion

Rhazer Fusion

Member
Insanity that GTA5 is still that high on the sales charts. I thought everyone and their mother, sister, dad and dog owned that game already. No wonder they were in no rush to release GTA6. Forspoken actually made the charts. Maybe future price drops will help Forspoken in the long run later, but who knows?
 
Mr.Phoenix

Mr.Phoenix

Member
Elios83 said:
PS5 sales are expected given the significantly improved supply.

I don't know where Xbox is going, being down year on year compared to a period of shortages is a really poor result.
The Series S price is almost as low as you can get....I don't know the options they have besides starting to release some great exclusive games hoping they spur demand.
They could also reverse their bet on Series S and try to manufacture more Series X but it's risky.
Click to expand...
You need games, to sell hardware.
 
Raonak

Raonak

Banned
ChuckeRearmed said:
Xbox has to resolve a problem regarding being an appealing product. With Sony it is essentially that "apple effect" of the past where people want it because it is "apple".
Click to expand...
People say this, but it helps that sony has consistent high quality releases. Launching with console with demons and spiderman, then releasing GT7, Horizon and GOW all last year. they've got the momenteum because they've been building it ever since last gen.

Unlike Apple, Sony is hype with real substance behind it
 
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GHG

GHG

Gold Member
ChuckeRearmed said:
Xbox has to resolve a problem regarding being an appealing product. With Sony it is essentially that "apple effect" of the past where people want it because it is "apple".


If they exist by that time 🤣 I wonder whom Square Enix will blame this time
Click to expand...

As a whole this post is at odds with itself. Extend the sentiment you hold towards Square Enix to Xbox and you have the resolution to your first paragraph.

In order for Xbox to have an "appealing product" they first need to stop blaming other people and then come up with compelling software to drive people towards their console and ecosystem.
 
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Mr.Phoenix

Mr.Phoenix

Member
ChuckeRearmed said:
Xbox has to resolve a problem regarding being an appealing product. With Sony it is essentially that "apple effect" of the past where people want it because it is "apple".
Click to expand...
It's a simple one really.

Just make great games. But MS is either full of idiots, disillusioned, or just hasn't got a clue. My money is on a combination of at least two of those.

This is a company that was willing to spend over $60B to take a shortcut, people have been complaining about their lack of gaming output since far back in 2017. If they instead decided to channel just 10% of that money into building new IPs or rebooting older ones, they would have like 10-15 great games right now that everyone would be talking about. To really put this into perspective just to drum home how out of touch MS is... Sony has spent less than $1.5B developing (and marketing) GOW2018, GOWR, Spiderman, SM.MM, HZ.ZD, HZ.FW, GoT, TlOU2, Rathet, Returnal, and GT7. The ones I can remember that were released since 2017.

$1.5B... and yet, MS's biggest move in the same 5-year span is to drop $60B to consolidate a subscription service.

Their priorities are just all wrong.
 
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O

Ozriel

M$FT
Mr.Phoenix said:
It's a simple one really.

Just make great games. But MS is either full of idiots, disillusioned, or just hasn't got a clue. My money is on a combination of at least two of those.

This is a company that was willing to spend over $60B to take a shortcut, people have been complaining about their lack of gaming output since far back in 2017. If they instead decided to channel just 10% of that money into building new IPs or rebooting older ones, they would have like 10-15 great games right now that everyone would be talking about. To really put this into perspective just to drum home how out of touch MS is... Sony has spent less than $1.5B developing (and marketing) GOW2018, GOWR, Spiderman, SM.MM, HZ.ZD, HZ.FW, GoT, TlOU2, Rathet, Returnal, and GT7. The ones I can remember that were released since 2017.

$1.5B... and yet, MS's biggest move in the same 5-year span is to drop $60B to consolidate a subscription service.

Their priorities are just all wrong.
Click to expand...

Most of those games you cite for Sony started development well before 2017, and prior to that MS had let their first party lineup atrophy.

They’ve invested a lot in first party content since then (kicking off from 2018), but these take time to show up.

The fastest shortcut they could have employed would have been to go all in on timed exclusivity deals, but I’m not sure how popular those moves would have been.
 
Mr.Phoenix

Mr.Phoenix

Member
Ozriel said:
Most of those games you cite for Sony started development well before 2017, and prior to that MS had let their first party lineup atrophy.

They’ve invested a lot in first party content since then (kicking off from 2018), but these take time to show up.

The fastest shortcut they could have employed would have been to go all in on timed exclusivity deals, but I’m not sure how popular those moves would have been.
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter when development started. MS was around too then.

Point is, even before getting into the XB1 generation MS (or any company worth their salt trying to make a mark in the gaming market), should have invested heavily and focused on the games. Instead, they were shutting down projects!! Then in 2016/2017.... decided that the solution to their problems was gamepass.
 
TheGodfather07

TheGodfather07

Member
Ronin_7 said:
February should be PlayStation 5 biggest month ever based on people I've been in contact with that work at retail.

Let's wait & see though.
Click to expand...

This year in general is going to be insane for sony. Many of us thought their 18m target would be tough but they not only expect to hit it but increased it to 19m. They're also expecting minimum 23m for next fiscal year and could possibly go as high as 30m. I expect sony will stay number one worldwide now for a long time. Only switch 2 will be able to compete on that level.
 
H-I-M

H-I-M

Member
Microsoft been almost bundling Series S with cereals and it still not selling ? That's too bad.
Mario Kart will never die and we'll never get the next game.
 
Kokoloko85

Kokoloko85

Member
Not surprised. Now that stock is back to normal, the numbers are gonna go up.
Haters were dreaming thinking thats what the actual numbers would look like if there was no stock issues….
 
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Ronin_7

Ronin_7

Member
TheGodfather07 said:
This year in general is going to be insane for sony. Many of us thought their 18m target would be tough but they not only expect to hit it but increased it to 19m. They're also expecting minimum 23m for next fiscal year and could possibly go as high as 30m. I expect sony will stay number one worldwide now for a long time. Only switch 2 will be able to compete on that level.
Click to expand...
Likely.
 
SlimySnake

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
xiskza said:
Chris-Dring-GOW-Horizon-bundle-sales.png
Click to expand...
15% of Horizon sales but way higher rate for console sales which are now inflated thanks to the value of the game being added on TOP of the MSRP which already saw an increase of 50 quids. So the console is effectively hundred pounds more expensive. If the bundle was like the GOW PS4 Pro bundle that came with the free game at $399 or PS4 Pros MSRP at the time then yes, thats something pro consumer and should be celebrated. By forcing 45-55% of the people to pay extra for a game they might not want is lame. Horizon and GOW sold just 20 million copies to 120 million PS4 owners. Thats a rate of just 16%.

The article in the OP says 45% for Horizon over the course of FIVE months and 55% for GOW.
It’s the God of War Ragnarok editions doing the business for Sony, Gfk boss Dorian Bloch tells us. It represented 55% of PS5 volume in January. The Ragnarok standard PS5 official bundle launched in November 2022, while the digital Ragnarok edition arrived in January. It has essentially takes over from the Horizon Forbidden West official hardware bundles that ruled between May and September last year, which represented around 43% of all PS5 hardware volume during those five months.
Click to expand...
 
Tiago Rodrigues

Tiago Rodrigues

Member
Ronin_7 said:
February should be PlayStation 5 biggest month ever based on people I've been in contact with that work at retail.

Let's wait & see though.
Click to expand...
Sony's marketing campaign for PS5 just started in late January. They even have a Superbowl add planned for this weekend.

They will keep selling everything they can and keep riding the hype train until Final Fantasy XVI releases this summer, and then the new SKU release later in the year, plus Spider-Man 2 during the fall.

The truth is, they are promoting all PS5 games that are already out as we speak. Games like Forbidden West, Ragnarok, Miles Morales will keep shifting those units.

And what's scary is how this year seems to be a slower year for Playstation overall (if you don't care for VR). I feel next year will be bigger than this one, at least for Sony's studios releases.

They want to sell everything they can in 2023...because next year will be even bigger. FFVII Rebirth, Factions, possibly Wolverine, at least 2 or 3 Gaas games to be released.

The truth is, we never knew this little about what's cooking at Sony's studios. That's exciting tbh. Once they start showing us more about their future releases i have a feeling we'll be impressed.
 
O

Ozriel

M$FT
Ezekiel_ said:
Probably the opposite, they'll get a subscription service day one deal
Click to expand...


In two years time, it’ll be on PS plus and be sold at $10. Unless a GP deal comes for cheap, I don’t think MS would bother springing for it.

It would certainly make more sense if they try to put that cash towards Final Fantasy, if possible. That’s a long running series.
 
DForce

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
yurinka

yurinka

Member
Nice to see that shipments are going back to normality.

Tiago Rodrigues said:
The team doing Forspoken...that studio is getting canned isn't it?
Click to expand...
It's too early to tell if the game has been successful or not. In some countries ranked very well.

This is a January sales ranking: a new IP released January 24th charting in top 16 looks promising. But still too early to properly analyze anything.
 
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