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According to GSD, over 7.9 million digital and physical games have been sold across Europe.
It’s a big 29% drop compared to April and a 21% drop compared to May 2021 (note: 2022 includes digital numbers for Bethesda and Gearbox). There has been a lack of new game releases over the last four weeks, with not a single new release in the top 20.
Almost 4.5 million of the games sold last month were sold through digital download stores.
Nintendo Switch Sports was #1 purely based on the game’s physical sales (Nintendo doesn’t share digital numbers). The game was a particular hit in France and Germany, with the two countries accounting for more than half of all copies sold across Europe. The game was also #1 in Spain and Italy, while in the UK it was #1 Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (to view the UK report click here).
Console supply issues are easing
In terms of hardware, over 297,000 slot machines were sold across tracked European countries (German and UK data are not included, for the UK market report click here). That’s down almost 3% from April and down 3% from May last year.
May 2022 sales of new consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X and S) in the tracked European markets are up 26% m/m as supply shortages gradually eased. Nintendo Switch sales were almost identical between May 2022 and May 2021, around the 135,000 mark.
So far this year, the PS5 has fared worse. Sales for the PS5 in the first five months of 2022 are down by half compared to this time last year. This compares to the Xbox Series X and S, which sold roughly the same number of units in 2022 compared to 2021. Nintendo Switch, meanwhile, saw 20% year-over-year growth.
Aftermarket slips slightly
Just over 992,000 accessories and toys-to-life products were sold across Europe in May, down 14% from the same period last year and down 8% from April.
The PS5 DualSense controller remains number 1 ahead of the PS4 DualShock controller.
In terms of point cards, 924,000 cards were sold at retail last month, down 7% year-on-year and down 11% from April.
Sniper Elite 5 enjoys streaming success
Data from Sparker’s stream tracker, Audience, which tracks global streaming on Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming, found that Sniper Elite 5 (one of the few new releases in the last month) aired over 50,432 hours and watched 1.9 million hours in May became.
This resulted in an average of 37 hours watched for every hour that was streamed live. This is based solely on the six days it was on sale for in May.
Last month, the average hours watched for Sniper Elite 5 was three times higher compared to Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which released April 5, Sparkers revealed. However, it was 61% lower than the average hours watched for Nintendo Switch Sports, which released on April 29th.
The average hours watched on Nintendo Switch Sports was twice that of FIFA 22 and 45% higher than GTA 5, despite FIFA 22 having 45 times the number of hours watched as GTA 5 had 95 times. This means that the streamers who live-streamed Nintendo Switch Sports had the highest average viewership based on a fraction of the airtime compared to the two evergreen titles.
Although the number of hours watched for the Elden Ring halved in May compared to April (when the game was released), the average number of hours watched versus hours broadcast fell by just 9%.
European GSD May 2022 Top 20 Games (Digital + Physical)
| position | title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nintendo Switch Sport (Nintendo)* | |
| 2 | FIFA 22 (EA) | |
| 3 | Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Warner Bros.) | |
| 4 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rock Star) | |
| 5 | Elden Ring (Bandai Namco) | |
| 6 | NBA 2K22 (2K Games) | |
| 7 | Horizon Forbidden West | |
| 8th | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)* | |
| 9 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) | |
| 10 | Gran Turismo 7 (Sony) | |
| 11 | Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo)* | |
| 12 | Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Nintendo)* | |
| 13 | Minecraft: Switch Edition (Mojang) | |
| 14 | Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft) | |
| fifteen | Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (EA) | |
| 16 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)* | |
| 17 | Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft) | |
| 18 | Mario Party Superstars (Nintendo)* | |
| 19 | Hearts of Iron IV (Paradox) | |
| 20 | The Sims 4 (EA) |
* Digital data not available
GSD Digital Data includes games from participating companies sold through Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Nintendo Eshop. The main participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, Saber Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Konami, Marvelous Games, Microids, Microsoft (including Bethesda), Milestone, Nacon , Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Nintendo and 505 Games are the most notable absentees, alongside smaller studios.
Digital Data includes games published in Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Portugal are sold, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.
Physical data includes all games but only those sold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Console hardware sales include Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Accessory sales cover the same markets but do not include Switzerland.