PS5 Best-Seller as Sales Drop Just 2% YoY - Europe Hardware Estimates for December 2024 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 24 January 2025 / 8,364 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in Europe with 1.18 million units sold for December 2024, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 24.41 million units lifetime in Europe.
The Nintendo Switch sold an estimated 0.92 million units to bring its lifetime sales to 38.50 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 0.17 million units to bring their lifetime sales to 8.28 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold an estimated 1,975 units to bring its lifetime sales to 45.86 million units.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2017 are down by nearly 0.42 million units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by nearly 0.39 million units. PS4 sold 1.59 million units for the month of December 2017 and Xbox One sales were at 0.56 million units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 24,316 (-2.0%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 154,727 units (-47.4%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 161,672 units (-15.0%). The PlayStation 4 is down by 8,598 units (-81.3%) year-over-year.
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are down by over 0.78 million units, Xbox Series X|S sales are down by less than 4,000 units, and Nintendo Switch sales are up by over 0.36 million units.
2024 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 6.78 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 3.34 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 1.07 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Europe hardware estimates for December 2024 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 1,177,618 (24,408,072)
- Switch - 915,088 (38,500,340)
- Xbox Series X|S - 171,726 (8,280,730)
- PlayStation 4 - 1,975 (45,862,754)
Weekly Sales:
Europe December 7, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 254,594
- Switch - 200,441
- Xbox Series X|S - 40,261
- PlayStation 4 - 559
Europe December 14, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 233,730
- Switch - 176,082
- Xbox Series X|S - 32,944
- PlayStation 4 - 437
Europe December 21, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 284,633
- Switch - 225,340
- Xbox Series X|S - 41,901
- PlayStation 4 - 455
Europe December 28, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 249,946
- Switch - 197,226
- Xbox Series X|S - 34,112
- PlayStation 4 - 327
Europe January 4, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 154,715
- Switch - 115,999
- Xbox Series X|S - 22,508
- PlayStation 4 - 197
VGChartz Methodology: Hardware estimates are based on retail sampling and trends in individual countries, which are then extrapolated to represent the wider region. This typically allows us to produce figures that end up being within 10% of the actual totals.
This data is regularly compared against official shipment figures released by the console manufacturers and figures estimated by regional trackers with greater market coverage than ourselves. We then update our own estimates to bring them into line with those figures. This can result in frequent changes often within a short space of time, but we feel it's important to prioritise accuracy over consistency.
Note that our estimates are based on sell-through data (units sold to consumers). In almost all cases the figures released by console manufacturers are based on shipment data (sell-in), where as soon as a device has left the factory and entered the supply chain for delivery it is considered a sale. This is why there is always a difference between the companies’ figures (sell-in) and VGChartz estimates (sell-through), even after we’ve made adjustments. The one exception to that is when a console has been discontinued and the remaining stock has finally sold out – at that point the figures will match.
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 Bluesky.
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The Switch sales are good as f***
Switch is going to end up a few millions behind PS4 in Europe, this is crazy !!! Europe was Switch's weakest main market but it did grow Nintendo's market there.
God damn those sales where higher than expected!! Switch Shipments Q3 should be quite a bit higher than 4 million!! 150 million shipped by 12.31.2025 is a given now!!
In 2025? I think thats a bit early. IF it goes that far, more likley march 2026 or even 2027. But for now it passed 150 million shipped! The DS will fall next. What happens then all depends on when Nintendo launches the Switch 2. But that seems to be later than over 90% of us expected. I do not say it will get there but after the fact we won't see Switch 2 in stores before may 8, Switch won't sell less than expected...
Interesting that PS5 sales are down quite a lot, while Switch sales are up compared to November. PS5 and Xbox Series losing a lot compared to the respective month of PS4 and Xbox One.
The difference is though, you can lose to PS4 and still have a successful console. You can't lose to Xbone and be successful.
The PS5 Pro gave the PS5 a big boost in November. If it wasn't for that the PS5 would have been down YoY in November.
Europe is still very price sensitive. The PS5 was on sale during November and full price in December
I think that Switch 2 could do better than Original Switch in Europe. Switch is doing really good but it's its weakest region. Switch settled the base for Nintendo Switch 2.
I think people forget why the PS5 had such a great year in 2023. It had finally caught up with stock per demand after covid and the first half of the year their numbers were incredible. Ps5 is actually having a great year sales wise without even releasing many great games. I think it still has another 2 solid years of selling before it really starts slowing down. Not sure if we consider a console that will sell over 100 million lifetime a failure.
PS5 sales numers are incredible, but PS4 sales are insane! No mater how crazy PS5 sales are, It can't surpass PS4.
With no price drop? I agree. It's crazy it's even holding it's own with these prices. GTA 6 could change things though. That's when a bunch of people will upgrade and if old Xbox users decide to go PS instead of Xbox we could see a massive boost for them.
He's trying to say that because GTA6 is multiplatform it won't have the impact on PS5 sales your saying it will. I completely disagree with him, but that's what he's saying
What are you expecting? 1 million PS5s every week? There will be an ompact yes but nothing ground braking. Also Xbox will be influenced bit not to a level some are hoping.
It will be ground breaking. It will easily break all records. Xbox sales are falling off a cliff so hard that the game being on there will hardly detract from it having ground breaking success on PS5.
GTA VI as a game yes. But it won't push PS5 to 160 million sales.
I honestly don't know. What I can say is we haven't seen a generation like this ever in gaming. So many people staying on old systems because their games are still there. Console prices staying so high for so long. It's just the prefect recipe to see all consoles have a late stage boost in sales.
Expecting 10% drop so this is great. If Sony keep discount for whole December it will be up.
So, Nintendo will probably end the year at ~3 million units worldwide. That means it’s down a mere ~50% from December 2020, five years ago. Cliff indeed.
