As the title suggests, video game sales increased across Europe in July. This might seem pretty odd: even though there were no big releases on any platform this month, 2.4 million video games were sold in July, a 3.4% increase year-over-year.
The increase in video game sales is impressive considering July was a month with very few major releases on any platform. Looking at the top 10 for July, the only game released this year was Luigi's Mansion 2 HD; all the others were released last year, including top-selling EA Sports FC 24.
While some may be surprised by the spike in sales for EA Sports FC 24, it's not surprising considering the European Championship took place in July. Because of this, EA Sports FC 24 sold 69% more in July this year than FIFA 23 did last year.
Digging deeper, we found that there were a lot of game promotions in July that boosted the sales of certain games. For example, Hitman Absolution, a game that was first released in 2012, ran a free game promotion on Amazon Prime, which boosted the game's sales significantly. Thanks to this promotion, Hitman Absolution made it to number 8 on our list.
Games like Grand Theft Auto V continue to hold the top spot, coming in at number two on the list, while Elden Ring has dropped to third place. Coming in at number ten is It Takes Two, which is surprising considering the game was released in 2022.
As for new releases, EA Sports College Football 25 was a big success in the UK, reaching number 39 in the European charts.
While game sales increased across Europe in July, the same cannot be said for console sales. In select markets, excluding the UK and Germany, 263,000 consoles were sold. Compared to last year, this is a significant 46% decrease. The PlayStation 5 led the way in sales in July, but is still down 56% from last year. In second place, the Nintendo Switch also saw a decrease; however, the Nintendo Switch's decrease was significantly smaller, at 29% year-over-year.
The Xbox series, which came in third, had the lowest sales this year, but continues to suffer from significant losses from last year. Compared to July of last year, overall Xbox series sales fell 42%.
There hasn't been any big news this month regarding new consoles or new major launches. People are still anxiously awaiting the Nintendo Switch 2, but that's not going to happen for a while.
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