European Game Sales Fall, Switch Is Once Again The Best-Selling Console Of 2022

I think this year, the full 2023 they will have to drop some big AAA games second half and last quarter of the year to stay top in console sales, in Europe and the UK.

Urgh... it's disingenous to list Scarlet/Violet separately as they likely outsold Legends Arceus (as nice as it is to see it higher on the list as it's the superior game). The lack of new Switch games on the list is a little disheartening though.

And is it any wonder that Mario Kart 9 never materialised when MK8D is still selling tens of millions of copies nearly 9 years on?!

Even GTA V continues to sell like hotcakes as it nears its TENTH anniversary!

Fifa, Fifa, CoD, GTA5 and Elden Ring. EU is so predictable.

@sanderev Personally I find it very encouraging that a game like Elden Ring sold as well as it did. It's only a good thing for the games industry.

@JohnnyC Is it though? To me Elden Ring is extremely overhyped. Sure it's a beautiful game, but in the end it's a "'You died'-simulator". Like Dark Souls.

And honestly of the games I named it's the least main stream. But still overhyped tbh.

The Nintendo Switch was amazing in 2022. It was the best year for the Nintendo ever. So much games come out on that year. The best year ever in the game industry. I do not think this year will be better year than the 2022 for Nintendo Switch. When Zelda comes out every one will play that till Pikmen 4. This year we will play Tears of the kingdom. It is a big game. We will play long time.

@sanderev

I disagree. What it did by merging traditional souls gameplay and a completely open world made it completely worthy of the accolades it received. The game delivered on its premise in ways few games today realize, and rewarded thorough exploration of its locales. The variety and scope of the world was incredible, and I found the vision of the devs to be something truly inspiring.

But you’re entitled to your own opinion.

@sanderev Doesn't appear to me to be an incremental improvement or yearly updated title though, which is why I don't feel it's success was predictable. I'm particularly happy to see praise and success given to exclusively single-player and story-driven games these days. As for GTA, that was always going to do well as in addition to its continued popularity, this year it had the next-gen releases which will have given it an additional bump. It's no more Rockstar's fault for making an excellent game that finds new fans years after its release in 2013 than it is Nintendo's for doing the same thing with Mario Kart 8 in 2014. For Call of Duty and FIFA, I agree those are predictable chart positions as there are many people (I know a few as I'm sure we all do) who only buy the yearly entries in those franchises and little else in terms of gaming.

@Sisilly_G

It isn't disingenuous. It is Nintendo's choice to have them listed as separate games not the people who report the charts.

@uptownsoul Yeah, FIFA is dead this year (EA Sports FC is the replacement) and CoD is rumoured to be having a year off so maybe this is the year GTAV returns to #1.

But Nintendo needs to launch a new console with marginally better graphics to compete with the PS5, even though it’s still the best-selling ninth generation console in Nintendo’s worst region. Or something.

@JohnnyC I agree with your sentiment. I’m thrilled to see Elden Ring doing so well. To have a game that has a robust (and complete) single player mode, no micro transactions, no hand holding, high difficulty, deep and diverse gameplay mechanics, in addition to it looking and playing phenomenally, do so well in this climate is refreshing, regardless of whether it was overhyped or not.

@Euler Sony needs to make a new handheld to compete with the Switch. It's obvious consumers don't want dedicated consoles anymore. The Switch, Steam Deck, and EverCade all are selling like hotcakes and Sony is missing out.

@Serpenterror 8 of the top 10 selling games on the above list were mostly or exclusively played on Sony's consoles. I think Sony are fairly happy pushing dedicated home consoles.

lol europeans have no taste

@Sisilly_G I think what's more disingenuous is that the Nintendo titles don't include any digital sales, so the charts are full of misinformation from that alone. It's surprising to see so many Nintendo titles so high on a list comparing with titles that also have digital sales data (which far out weighs physical sales nowadays). Imagine what the charts would look like if we had access to the digital numbers for Nintendo games also.

I wasn't expecting Kirby, but I'm not too surprised about the rest of the list, or about the Switch being the best selling console.

@PosterBoy They have their own tastes, and that's fine. I'm not interested in anything in the top five here, but I'm not going to tar ~750 million people with the same brush.

god of war ragnarok came out in november and week out it is near the top of the charts number 1 lately

@Sisilly_G It's annoying, but it's Nintendo's decision. Which is why I always combine it and put in the commentary where it would have finished combined together.

@XenoShaun Roughly, based on third-party games, around 20 - 25% of a Switch game sales are digital. It varies quite significantly, but for Nintendo, the majority of game sales are not digital.

Sony fans are soon going to have to concede defeat, I mean it was 'in stock' here the Uk before christmas and yet it's sales are down 35%. OUCHY"!!

@JohnnyC It's still made by the people that made Dark Souls, with almost exactly the same gameplay. In (yes @Res462) an open world.

But I just really don't enjoy playing games that constantly kill you until you know every single move and timing from a Boss and then you win.

I much rather have a normal RPG/adventure, where the battles are difficult but not punishing. Where you are able to grow into the game and learn how to deal with difficult enemies before you reach them. Which actually gives you a feeling of accomplishment.

@sanderev I've never played any of From's games including this, I just like that a single player game praised for its storytelling and narrative has done well. It sends a clear message that there's room and demand for that kind of thing when it's done well.

Think sales dropping because everybody energy bills are twice as much . Mortgage have been his by the greedy government their excuse curb inflation people han t got 50quid to blow on a g game now let alone nearly 500quid on a console that be out of date in 5 years. Nintendo tried sell switch replacement that price it be like sling you're hook. And I love my Nintendo consoles

@Zybrissa Are you our (Europeans) self appointed lawyer and defender?

"They have their own tastes, and that's fine." Who says that's fine, you? Europeans totally lost it.

"I'm not going to tar ~750 million people with the same brush." Wow! You're so tolerant, diversity-positive and inclusive! Anyway… Feel free one way or the other.

I can't be the only one that thinks that the Horizon series is an average series at best and doesn't deserve to be up there XD. It's basically a reskin of every open world that doesn't try to do anything fresh except robo dino enemies which gets old quickly.

I've just noticed that S/V would have been the top selling Switch game if they'd been counted together. I'm slightly torn about whether that would have been a good thing.

@XenoShaun : I don't think digital sales "far outweigh" physical sales in the way that you might think. Of course digital sales will overall outweigh physical sales in sheer numbers due to digital exclusives generally being a lot cheaper, and so there'll be larger volumes of cheaper games purchased digitally compared to US$60 blockbusters (blockbuster titles available physically still comprise the majority of best-selling games).

I think a fairer assessment would be to compare physical vs. digital sales data of games available in both forms, but unfortunately this data isn't always available.