PS5 Best-Seller in the UK in December as Sales Fall, Switch and Xbox Series X|S Sales Climb - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 January 2024 / 7,904 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the UK in December 2023, according to GfK Entertainment and reported by GamesIndustry.
The PS5 was the only console to see sales down compared to November as sales did drop 19 percent month-on-month.
The Nintendo Switch was the second best-selling console with sales up 39 percent month-on-month, while the Xbox Series X|S was the third best-selling console with sales up six percent.
Overall, there were nearly 500,000 video game consoles sold (panel data) in the UK in December 2023. This is up two percent month-on-month and up seven percent year-on-year.
GSD data shows there were 6.9 million games sold in December 2023, which is up two percent year-on-year.
EA Sports FC 24 is up one spot to take first place as sales were boosted due to Christmas sales during the month of December.
There was one new game to debut on the December charts. Avatar Frontiers of Pandora debuted in eighth place.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is down one spot to second place in its second month, while Hogwarts Legacy remained in third place. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is up one spot to fourth place and Grand Theft Auto V climbed up five spots to fifth place. Sales for Super Mario Bros. Wonder were higher in December than its launch month in October.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 fell from fourth to sixth place and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is up one spot to seventh place. Red Dead Redemption 2 re-entered the top 10 in ninth place, while Nintendo Switch Sports fell one spot to 10th place.
There were 2.07 million accessories and add-on products sold in the UK in December, which is up 63 percent percent compared to November and up 10 percent year-on-year. The White PlayStation 5 DualSense controller was number one, followed by the Midnight Black PS5 DualSense controller. The PS4 DualShock 4 re-entered the top 10 in seventh place.
Here are the top 10 best-selling games in the UK in December 2023 (Digital + Physical):
| Position | Title |
| 1 | EA Sports FC 24 (EA) |
| 2 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard) |
| 3 | Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) |
| 4 | Super Mario Bros Wonder (Nintendo)* |
| 5 | Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar) |
| 6 | Spider-Man 2 (Sony) |
| 7 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)* |
| 8 | Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Ubisoft) |
| 9 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 10 | Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo)* |
*Digital data unavailable
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, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Nintendo and 505 Games are the notable absentees, alongside smaller studios.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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For some context Xbox Series X was £359.99 and Series S was variable but £179.99 at one point and £199.99 commonly.
The PlayStation 5 inexplicably was only available at full RRP(£479.99 & 389.99) the whole month. Some stores had a retail discount of £10 for the disc version, and that’s it. Sony were obviously thinking the new model would do a lot of the heavy lifting but I imagine these number will be slightly dissapointing.
Quite frankly having no sales and still selling what they did probably makes them quite happy. A price drop next year will let them stay basically flat year on year I bet
Considering how shockingly bad November was for Xbox Series 6% up Month-over-Month implies another horrific month. PS5 drop is a disappointment but it has to be remembered last month was the biggest November EU sales for any console in VGChartz history. PS5 is declining from a record breaking month, Xbox is slightly improving over a disastrous month. Switch is getting the biggest boost from December as expected.
Just have to wait on the rest of the numbers now and see if PS5 will drop in EU as a whole month over month and if Xbox numbers are going to be as terrible as it seems.
On point!
Switch needed that boost since November wasn't so great. 2024 will be important for all 3 consoles. At what pace is the Switch going to decline, will it still have a chance to go top 2 in the console hall of fame ? Is the PS5 going to gain, remain flat or start a decline ? Will the Series stabilize or will it keep decreasing in sales.
My prediction
PS5 will sell around 24M in 2024 (+6%)
Switch will sell around 10M in 2024 (-33%)
Xbox Series will sell around 7.2M in 2024 (+14%)
Why so optimistic with PS5 and Xbox series? Ps5 will be down to about 19-21. Xbox series 4-6.
PS5 has entered its 4th year, and most consoles have their best selling year by year 4. Plus Japan will start to buy PS5 once Final Fantasy VII Rebirth comes out, which will be a great boost for sales. And I think Rise of Ronin and Suicide Squad will help the console out a lot.
With the Xbox Series, I think they had a slump year and will figure things out with their newly acquired studios. But it’s mostly optimistic.
Shocking numbers for Sony and Nintendo! Didn’t expect the Switch to do so well, and PS5 to drop from November?
Nintendo hardware is much more December skewed than the others, so it being up is to be expected. The number actually sounds a little on the low end from previous years.
That’s a fair point. After November, I was pessimistic that there may not even have been a holiday bump for Switch. Happy to see I was wrong on this prediction.
Dec 2023 Estimates
PS5: 194,400
Switch: 155,680
Xbox Series: 137,800
for a total of 487,880 "nearly 500,000".
"Nov 2023 estimates
PS5: 240k
Xbox Series X/S: 130k
Nintendo Switch: 112k"
-kazuyamishima
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/459358/ps5-best-seller-in-the-uk-in-november-with-sales-up-129-xbox-series-xs-sales-up-4/
I love your profile pic!
Thank you I made it myself, and is a personal goal of mine to play and complete all those games like a marathon.
Well, us Brits seem to like Xbox a hell of a lot more than the rest of the EU. It will probably be a blood bath everywhere else.
Would have liked to hear YoY changes
UK Dec 2023:
PS5 ~ 196K (+31% YoY)
X/S ~ 142K (+17% YoY)
UK 2023:
PS5 ~ 1,10 m (+43% YoY)
X/S ~ 0,57 m (-20% YoY)
Taken from Neogaf.
For Switch sales are down 17% YOY in December for the UK. Via Neogaf
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