Video Game Sales Jumped 34% in the UK in 2020, Switch #1 and PS5 #2 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 June 2021 / 3,841 Views
42.7 million video games were sold in the UK in 2020, according to a GamesIndustry report using GSD market data. The figure is a 34 percent increase when compared to 2019. 24.5 million games sold in the UK in 2020 were digital.
FIFA 21 was the best-selling game of 2020 with 2.2 million units sold, followed by Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which sold 1.42 million units. Grand Theft Auto V was the third best-selling game in 2020 in the UK with 1.13 million units sold.
Sales for the latest Call of Duty game were down 19 percent compared to last year's release. However, sales for the franchise in 2020 were 13 percent higher than in 2019.
67 percent of games sold in the UK in 2020 were sold through Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop, and Steam. This is higher than in 2019 when it was 52 percent. The pandemic is likely the biggest reason for the increase in digital game sales.
Physical game sales in the UK in 2020 actually grew two percent to 18.2 million games. Though, it should be noted 2020 includes 53 weeks, while 2019 includes 52 weeks.
If you include physical game sales, consoles, and accessories the physical games karter grew 28 percent year-over-year to £2.1 billion.
3.16 million video game consoles were sold in 2020, which is 29.4 percent higher than in 2019. This was lead by the Nintendo Switch, which was the best-selling console in 11 of the 12 months. Sales for the Switch are up 52.2 percent when compared to 2019. PS4 sales dropped 35.3 percent, while Xbox One sales were down 42.3 percent.
The PlayStation 5 was the second best-selling console, despite not launch until the middle of November. The PS5 barely outsold the PS4, which was in third place.
The standard Nintendo Switch with the Neon joy-con controllers was the best-selling single version of any console.
Here are the top 20 best-selling titles (Digital and Physical):
| 1 | FIFA 21 (EA) |
|---|---|
| 2 | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Activision Blizzard) |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
| 4 | FIFA 20 (EA) |
| 5 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Activision Blizzard) |
| 6 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons* (Nintendo) |
| 7 | Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft) |
| 8 | The Last of Us Part 2 (Sony) |
| 9 | NBA 2K20 (2K Games) |
| 10 | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft) |
| 11 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 12 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe* (Nintendo) |
| 13 | Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Sony) |
| 14 | Monopoly Plus (Ubisoft) |
| 15 | Marvel's Avengers (Square Enix) |
| 16 | Ghost of Tsushima (Sony) |
| 17 | Cyberpunk 2077 (Bandai Namco/CD Projekt)* |
| 18 | Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft) |
| 19 | Minecraft (Microsoft) |
| 20 | Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (EA) |
*Digital data not available
Here are the top 10 best-selling titles (Digital):
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | FIFA 21 (EA) |
| 2 | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Activision Blizzard) |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
| 4 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Activision Blizzard) |
| 5 | FIFA 20 (EA) |
| 6 | NBA 2K20 (2K Games) |
| 7 | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft) |
| 8 | Monopoly Plus (Ubisoft) |
| 9 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 10 | Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft) |
Here are the top 10 best-selling titles Physical):
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | FIFA 21 (EA) |
| 2 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) |
| 3 | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Activision Blizzard) |
| 4 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo) |
| 5 | Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft) |
| 6 | Cyberpunk 2077 (Bandai Namco/CD Projekt) |
| 7 | The Last of Us: Part 2 (Sony) |
| 8 | FIFA 20 (EA) |
| 9 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Activision Blizzard) |
| 10 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
Digital data includes games from participating companies sold via Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Anuman, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Electronic Arts, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media, Konami, Microsoft, Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, THQ Nordic, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Notable missing companies include Bethesda and Nintendo.
Thanks, GamesIndustry.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD
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I wonder if Animal Crossing would be #1 with digital sales included? The Last of Us Part 2 did well in the UK!
no, animal crossing sold only 81 million in physical, bocw and fifa21 sold 1.42m and 2.18m in physical&digital combined. Considering most Nintendo games sold more physical units than digital, there is no chance that ach will match up with bocw and fifa21
Didn't AC have particularly high digital sales compared to most Nintendo titles. Particularly due to it releasing during the early days of lockdown. Although I don't think it would pass fifa even with digital included.
