July Game Sales Surge In Europe: 11.6M Units Sold, 10-Year-Old Grand Theft Auto 5 Dominates Charts

Europe saw a substantial increase in console and PC game sales in July, reaching 11.6 million units, which was up by 34% from the same period in 2022.

Digital downloads accounted for 7.9 million units, growing by 60%, while physical copies slightly rose by 0.2% to 3.75 million units, according to a GSD report published by GamesIndustryBiz.

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Notably, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s TTWO Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5) continues its impressive performance even 10 years after its launch, remaining first in European sales charts in July 2023.

Despite competition from newer games such as Nintendo ADR's NTDOY Tears of the Kingdom and Activision Blizzard Inc.'s ATVI Diablo 4, GTA 5's remains prominent in the ranking, along with 2018's Red Dead Redemption 2, which sits at third place in the list of the most sold video games.

Meanwhile, Electronic Arts Inc.'s EA FIFA 23 secured second place, whilst the new game with the highest chart position was Nintendo Switch's exclusive Pikmin 4, ranking at No.11.

Regarding hardware, the GDS report revealed 493,000 consoles were sold in tracked European countries, up by 62.5% YoY but down 2% from June.

Sony Group Corp.'s SONY PS5 led with a 244% sales increase YoY, thanks to price promotions, and year-to-date sales were up 203%. Nintendo Switch ranked second, with sales down 9% YoY, maintaining year-to-date figures similar to 2022.

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