PS5 Best-Selling Console in the UK in September, FIFA 22 Sales Were 77% Digital - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2021 / 3,769 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in September 2021, according to GfK Entertainment. It is the console's best sales period since February or March depending on which four week period you look at.
The Xbox Series X|S saw a strong jump in sales as it claimed second place on the hardware charts.
Nintendo Switch dropped to third in hardware sales, however, the number of consoles sold did increase month-over-month following the £20 price drop of the standard Switch.
There were nearly 220,000 game consoles sold in the UK during September, which is the four week period ending October 2.
Overall console sales in the UK for the first nine months of 2021 are up by 43.2 percent when compared to 2020. Over 1.6 million consoles have been sold so far this year.
GSD data shows that 3.36 million physical and digital games were sold in the UK in September. That is 25 percent higher than in September 2020. The boost was mainly due to FIFA launching in September this year, while it launched in October in 2021. Digital game sales accounted for 2.26 million of game sales, while physical sales accounted for 1.1 million.
FIFA 22 dominated the UK charts in September after just one week. Launch sales are up 10 percent compared to FIFA 21. Physical sales dropped 34 percent compared to last year's game, however, digital sales grew 37 percent. 77 percent of FIFA 22 sales were digital, which is up from 62 percent of FIFA 21's sales.
NBA 2K22 debuted in third place with sales down over 29 percent compared to last year's game. Tales of Arise, Diablo II: Resurrected, Insurgency: Sandstorm, Death Stranding: Director's Cut, Deathloop and Life Is Strange: True Colors also debuted in the top 20.
Deathloop was the biggest PS5 exclusive in September with a debut in 16th place. However, it should be noted Bethesda, like Nintendo, does not share digital sales.
Here are the software charts:
| Position | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FIFA 22 (EA) | |
| 2 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) | |
| 3 | NBA 2K22 (2K Games) | |
| 4 | F1 2021 (EA/Codemasters) | |
| 5 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) | |
| 6 | Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Sony) | |
| 7 | Tales of Arise (Bandai Namco) | |
| 8 | Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut (Sony) | |
| 9 | Diablo II: Resurrected (Activision Blizzard) | |
| 10 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo)* | |
| 11 | Civilization VI (2K Games) | |
| 12 | Minecraft: Switch Edition* (Mojang) | |
| 13 | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft) | |
| 14 | Insurgency: Sandstorm (Focus Entertainment) | |
| 15 | Death Stranding: Director's Cut (Sony) | |
| 16 | Deathloop (Bethesda)* | |
| 17 | Life Is Strange: True Colors (Square Enix) | |
| 18 | Marvel's Avengers (Square Enix) | |
| 19 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)* | |
| 20 | Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft) |
* Digital data unavailable
GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Big Ben Interactive, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media, Konami, Microids, Microsoft, Milestone, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Strelka, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Nintendo and Bethesda are the notable absentees, alongside smaller studios.
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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Soeptember is my favourite month :)
77% of people decided to pay £15 extra to get the game digital instead of physical, Publishers are loving this trend.
It's weird how it costs extra in the UK. It seems there has traditionally been a history of games in the UK launching at below MSRP (or what is often called RRP in the UK). In Canada and the U.S., MSRP and street price at launch are usually the same, so buying digitally and buying the physical copy usually costs about the same at launch. That sucks for you guys in the UK that they still charge these unrealistic MSRPs that the stores don't honour (for whatever reason!).
Even after a price cut, Switch came in 3rd for the month. Wonder if it will reclaim 1st in October with the OLED launch?
Shocking how fast digital sales overtook physical.
Nintendo doesn't share digital sales
Sony really owns the UK and Europe market. It's interesting how, in Japan, the Switch is selling numbers much more akin to their portable products, but in the UK and Europe Switch seems to be selling numbers much more like their home console counterparts. I would imagine this is due to the price more than anything.
He said Europe, not Germany. He was just stating facts.
