As the title suggests, video game sales increased in July across Europe, which may seem quite bizarre. This month hasn’t seen any major releases across any platform, but 2.4 million video games were sold in July, a 3.4% rise year-on-year.
Considering the huge lack of major releases on any platform this July, it’s impressive that video game sales have increased. Looking at the Top Ten for July, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is the only game on the list released this year, with every other game being from last year, including top seller EA Sports FC 24.
While to some, the sudden rise of sales for EA Sports FC 24 may come as a shock, it’s no surprise considering the European Championships took place in July. Because of this, EA Sports FC 24 sold 69% more copies this July than FIFA 23 did last year.
Looking further into the facts, July saw many gaming promotions that helped boost the sales of specific games. For example, Hitman Absolution, a game initially released in 2012, had a free game promotion on Amazon Prime, boosting the game significantly. Because of the promotion, Hitman Absolution was number eight on the list.
Games like Grand Theft Auto V remain on top, coming in second on the list, with Elden Ring sliding into third position. In the tenth position, It Takes Two is on the list, which is a surprise considering the game’s release was in 2022.
Regarding new releases, EA Sports College Football 25 was highly successful in the UK but made it onto the European charts at number 39.
While game sales were up across Europe in July, the same cannot be said about console sales. 263,000 console units were sold across specific markets, excluding the UK and Germany. Compared to last year, this is a massive 46% drop. For the month of July, PlayStation 5 took the lead in sales but still proceeded to see a drop of 56% since last year. Nintendo Switch is second on the list, and we also see a drop. However, the drop for Nintendo Switch is significantly smaller and comes in at 29% year-on-year.
In third place, the Xbox Series sold the least consoles this year but continued to experience a rather heavy deficit from the year before. Compared to last July, they had a decrease of 42% in all Xbox Series sales.
This month, there was no major news about new consoles or new major launches. People are still waiting restlessly for the Nintendo Switch 2, but it doesn’t seem to be coming for a while.
