The European gaming market didn’t have a great year for sales. GamesIndustry’s Christopher Dring revealed this tidbit during the latest episode of the GI Microcast show, confirming that sales of new games went down by 29% compared to last year, as registered by GSD data.
2023 was always going to be a tough comparison. Last year saw the release of games like Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter 6, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, Diablo IV, Mortal Kombat 1, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Final Fantasy XVI, just to name a few. 2024 just didn’t have the same sheer triple-A power when it came to its schedule. Dring admitted as much in the podcast while also singling out two games that underperformed: Star Wars Outlaws and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Sales of new games in 2024 versus new games in 2023, and let’s remember 2023 was a big year for new games, were down 29%, almost a third, year-on-year. Next year’s the return of big blockbuster new games, even from February when you’ve got that sort of triple threat of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Avowed (I know Avowed isn’t that big) and Monster Hunter Wilds all in the same window. And there’s all the games that were announced during The Game Awards, there’s an Elden Ring coming out, and there’s a Grand Theft Auto, which obviously is the big thing.
There’s a new Nintendo console, and there’s gonna be loads and loads and loads of games next year, but I’m alarmed by this data because, despite the fact that there weren’t a lot of major titles, the big Star Wars game of the year only got to number 45 in a year where there wasn’t a lot of games coming out. In terms of the traditional big blockbuster Christmas games, you had Call of Duty, which did well, and you had Dragon Age, which did not. That is disappointing, though, that position. That was it. Dragon Age had the market to itself and it couldn’t find an audience, and that really is scary as we move into the following year.
Star Wars Outlaws and Dragon Age: The Veilguard ranked #14 and #19, respectively, when it comes to the new games European chart. But switching to the full chart that also includes games released in previous years, they drop to #45 and #68. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is similar in that it ranked in the ninth place among new games but only #34 overall. The same goes for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which was the twelfth best-selling new game of 2024 but only ranked #43 in the global chart.
Only five new games performed at least decently this year in Europe: Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO (#13), Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 (#12), Helldivers 2 (#6), and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (#3). Unsurprisingly, EA Sports FC 25 dominated European sales in 2024.
