According to a report published by the data provider GSD both physical and digital game sales were down in Europe in July 2022 by 38% year-over-year, down to 8.2 million sales in total. Per GSD’s data, EA’s F1 22 ranked first this month, followed by Rockstar’s GTA 5, and another EA title, FIFA 22.
F1 2022 topping the charts shouldn’t come as a surprise as it was released on June 28, 2022, across PC and across both old and new-gen consoles —except Nintendo devices—, but credit where credit is due, the racing game’s sales were up double-digits within first 30-days. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson believes the success of the game is due to both the sport gaining popularity among young people and the game being fun and satisfying.
Grand Theft Auto 5 continues to remain on top sales charts and it seems like only a new entry into the series will be able to dethrone it. GTA 5’s online community grew by 49% compared to the pre-pandemic era. Take-Two stated in its latest financial report that the game’s sales are still going strong, and it sold more than 170 million units in its lifetime.
EA’s other top entry, FIFA 22, is also having a fruitful summer, despite the World Cup, arguably the biggest football event, being pushed to the winter of 2023. The game’s competitive mode Ultimate Team grew nearly 40% year-over-year in this financial quarter. While the football game’s sales are impressive, it’s not even the main source of revenue for it.
FIFA games generate the most revenue from FIFA Ultimate Team, the competitive mode where players can build their own dream teams. EA sells FUT packs (FIFA’s take on loot boxes)in this competitive mode and while the firm excludes from the SEC report how much FUT generates, experts estimate that in-game purchases make up over 25% of EA’s business overall.
Not seeing any Nintendo games in the top five shouldn’t be surprising as the Japanese gaming giant only shared physical sale numbers with GSD, meaning digital units sold are completely missing in Nintendo’s case, which would be the main revenue generator under normal circumstances. However, earlier this month, Nintendo shared the top 10 best-selling Nintendo Switch exclusive games list and announced that Nintendo Switch sold over 111 million units so far.
You can find the full list below, alongside GSD’s methodology.
Best selling PC and console games of July 2022
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | F1 22 (EA) |
| 2 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
| 3 | FIFA 22 (EA) |
| 4 | LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Warner Bros) |
| 5 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 6 | Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo)* |
| 7 | Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Nintendo)* |
| 8 | Mario Strikers: Battle League Football* (Nintendo) |
| 9 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)* |
| 10 | NBA 2K22 (2K Games) |
| 11 | The Crew 2 (Ubisoft) |
| 12 | Elden Ring (Bandai Namco) |
| 13 | Minecraft Switch Edition (Microsoft) |
| 14 | Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft) |
| 15 | The Quarry (2K Games) |
| 16 | Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft) |
| 17 | Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Nintendo)* |
| 18 | Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (EA) |
| 19 | Gran Turismo 7 (Sony) |
| 20 | Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo)* |
GSD’s data includes the following platforms: Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Eshop. The data provider said games from Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Sabre Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvellous Games, Microids, Microsoft (including Bethesda), Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Warner Bros among many other smaller studios are included in the list, however, Nintendo and 505 Games are missing from its list.
Lastly, the data comes from the following countries: Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE and United Kingdom.
Thanks for the heads up Gamesindustry.biz! We would have missed this report if you didn’t cover it.
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