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UK Monthly Charts | Helldivers 2 drives UK March game sales up 26%

Jaybe

Member


3.65 million PC and console games were sold across the UK during March, an impressive rise of 26% over the same period in 2023.

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GSD data, which tracks all physical sales and digital sales from most major publishers, reveals that for a second consecutive month, Sony's Helldivers 2 was the best-selling video game.

After eight weeks, the game's sales are now trending ahead of where Spider-Man 2 (Sony's last big release) was after the same length of time. They are, of course, very different games, with Spider-Man 2 retailing at £70 and only releasing on PS5. Helldivers 2 has a lower price and is also available on PC.

Needless to say, the new game is showing impressive legs and continues to place near the top of the charts each week.

It was the battle of the Japanese RPGs during March with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (technically released in February, but part of the March data) and Dragon's Dogma 2 both coming to market. The result? A narrow success for Dragon's Dogma 2, which debuts at No.3 in this month's chart, while Final Fantasy VII Rebirth comes in at No.4. There isn't a huge amount in it, but it's worth noting that Dragon's Dogma 2 had only been on the market for two weeks when this data was counted.

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Sandwiched between the two RPGs is WWE 2K24, which has had a stronger start to life than last year's game. After four weeks, 2K24's sales are 8% higher than what 2K23 managed.

Absolutely flooding the charts this week are Command & Conquer titles, which was part of a 17-title bundle released on Steam during March. Two of the games (Generals and Red Alert 2) make the Top Ten, with ten games in total in the Top 20.

As a result, new releases like Rise of Ronin (No.21) and Princess Peach: Showtime (No.30) are lower down the charts than they would have been.

Games hardware continues to fall year-on-year

Meanwhile, just over 117,000 games consoles were sold in the UK during March, GfK panel data shows.

It's a rise of 22% over February, but down 15% over March last year.

As we've said in previous months, PS5 became fully available this time last year, which caused a significant boost to sales, so comparisons this year were always likely to be tough. We're also into the eighth year on the market for Nintendo Switch, which is starting to show its age.

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PS5 sales are up 25% over February, but down 9% over March last year. Sony's console is comfortably No.1 for the month.

Nintendo Switch sales are up 20% month-on-month, but down 20% year-on-year. While narrowly missing out on second place is Xbox Series S and X, which is up 19% over the month before, but down 18% year-on-year.

Elsewhere, 732,584 accessories were sold in the UK during March, which is up 20% over February and up 16% over March last year. The White DualSense controller drops to No.3, while the Midnight Black version leaps to the top. The Starlight Blue DualSense controller is the biggest riser of the month, up 13 places to No.6. The PlayStation Portal is up six places to No.8, and the Xbox Astral Purple Controller jumps nine places to No.9.

The new pink Joy-Cons for Switch, released to coincide with Nintendo's Princess Peach Showtime game, debut at No.52.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, GfK games boss Dorian Bloch went deeper on the sales of accessories this month.

“Controller category is really moving this year so far, led by PS5 joypads and especially by revenue,” he tells us. “The Dualsense Edge is the No.2 Joypad by revenue on PS5, just behind the Dualsense White. Obviously, the Edge does not sell in the same vast quantities as the Dualsense White, but we are talking a product that’s £57 vs a product at £209.”

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Bloch adds that gaming mice and keyboards have been doing really well this year. The Mice market is dominated by Logitech products such as the G502, G305 and G203.

“And by revenue Logitech is stealing the show, Bloch says. “The Top 10 Mice by revenue this year are all Logitech.

In terms of keyboards, things are led by the Trust GXT-830 and GXT-865 (both of which were on sale during March), and the Logitech G213. Steelseries is showing impressive revenue growth, Bloch tells us, with five SKUs performing well, notably the Apex Pro keyboards.

UK GSD March 2024 Top 10 (Digital and Physical)​

PositionTitle
1Helldivers 2 (Sony)
2EA Sports FC 24 (EA)
3Dragon's Dogma 2 (Capcom)
4WWE 2K24 (2K Games)
5Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (Square Enix)
6Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
7Command & Conquer: Generals (EA)
8Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
9Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
10Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (EA)
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GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via PC digital stores, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Sabre Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Kepler, Konami, Marvellous Games, Microids, Microsoft (including Bethesda), Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Tencent, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Nintendo and 505 Games are the notable absentees, alongside smaller studios.
 

Zheph

Member
Video Games Team GIF by PlayStation
 

Jaybe

Member
Some facts, Helldivers 2 is now ahead of Spider-man 2 in the UK when launch aligned.

Console sales changes;

PS5 sales are up 25% over February, but down 9% over March last year. Sony's console is comfortably No.1 for the month.

Nintendo Switch sales are up 20% month-on-month, but down 20% year-on-year. While narrowly missing out on second place is Xbox Series S and X, which is up 19% over the month before, but down 18% year-on-year.
 

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Hudo Hudo look at this! 🔥

Absolutely flooding the charts this week are Command & Conquer titles, which was part of a 17-title bundle released on Steam during March. Two of the games (Generals and Red Alert 2) make the Top Ten, with ten games in total in the Top 20.
 

Jaybe

Member
What’s going to be interesting when we get Sony’s financial update is Helldivers 2’s impact on PS Plus subscriptions, given around half sold seem to be the console version of the game.
 

Three

Member
What’s going to be interesting when we get Sony’s financial update is Helldivers 2’s impact on PS Plus subscriptions, given around half sold seem to be the console version of the game.
Unfortunately they don't report that anymore.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
FF7 Rebirth should sell more, come one guys
Nah, I think it's tracking about right - doubt it'll have legs either. I expect sales for the third installment to be even lower. SE cynically overplayed their hand on this one and I think that'll become more evident over time.
 

Elios83

Member
Sony is carrying the market alone at this point.
And they're down yoy by a really low margin over the record numbers of last year.
If they could cut the price later this year with the introduction on the Pro they could get amazing sales.
The Helldivers2 success is also amazing and it will send signals that a properly executed gaas strategy is needed for their future.

Nintendo needs to announce and release a Switch successor as soon as they can to return to growth.
Microsoft lol they dug their hole with their "hardware sales are not important", day one PC strategy and other brillant business strategies. They can happily retire from the console market.
 

Flabagast

Member
Nah, I think it's tracking about right - doubt it'll have legs either. I expect sales for the third installment to be even lower. SE cynically overplayed their hand on this one and I think that'll become more evident over time.
I dont know how it can be called cynical given how high the production value and how generous the game is
 
Sony is carrying the market alone at this point.
And they're down yoy by a really low margin over the record numbers of last year.
If they could cut the price later this year with the introduction on the Pro they could get amazing sales.
The Helldivers2 success is also amazing and it will send signals that a properly executed gaas strategy is needed for their future.

Nintendo needs to announce and release a Switch successor as soon as they can to return to growth.
Microsoft lol they dug their hole with their "hardware sales are not important", day one PC strategy and other brillant business strategies. They can happily retire from the console market.
Sony is about to have another Christmas alone. Probably a small PS5 slim price decrease this year with the pro release.

Next year, with GTAVI there's no way they won't have a boost as well, even if Switch 2 releases.
Helldivers surpassing Spiderman is...I have no words. I'm literally getting teary eyed thinking about what this means.
One was released on PS5 only and cost 70$/80€, the other one was released on PC as well at half the price.

That said, no one expected this level of success for Helldivers 2 and i hope Sony reconsiders huge 200M budgeted games all the times. You CAN release cheaper games that make you even more money than a huge AAA production.
 
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Nah, I think it's tracking about right - doubt it'll have legs either. I expect sales for the third installment to be even lower. SE cynically overplayed their hand on this one and I think that'll become more evident over time.
I don’t think that the game is selling as SE expected… But with an imminent PC release it could break even. Radio silence by SE is a really bad sign.
 
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Fafalada

Fafracer forever
You CAN release cheaper games that make you even more money than a huge AAA production.
I hope noone is under illusion that companies aren't aware of this - they'd much prefer to spend nothing and get all the money - for obvious reasons.
But I also wouldn't assume Helldivers 2 is making more money (yet) or that it's going to be cheaper than SM2 when all is said and done.
 

Metnut

Member
FF7Re almost outsold DD2 despite being PS5 only? Wow. Kudos to Square Enix. They’ll get all this sales money, whatever Sony gave them for the money hat, plus get a second go of it when the PC version releases next year. The chart doesn’t even include the bundle sales with FF7R either which is tracked separately.

Glad to see such a great game being a financial success too. I’d be curious about development costs but since they just used the same engine and team as the first game, I’d hope the development costs were reasonable.

Also, poor Ronin. That’s a brutal debut.
 
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yazenov

Member
It was released along side Helldivers 2, Dragon's Dogma 2, and Rise of the Ronin. So a lot of games for PS5 owners over a 6 week period.

Yeah too many games releasing in the same launch window are competing with your time and money. It's a good problem to have if you're the consumer though, and I am not complaining. You forgot Unicorn Overload also which was a fantastic game.
 
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