Pokémon and God of War can’t prevent November sales slump | European Monthly Charts

18.1 million video games were sold across Europe during November 2022, the latest GSD data shows.

It's actually a decline of 17% over November 2021. 7.8 million games were downloaded (a drop of nearly 15% year-on-year), while 10.4 million were bought physically (a fall of just under 18%).

The key difference compared with 2021 is that Call of Duty: Vanguard launched during November last year, whereas this year's Call of Duty -- Modern Warfare 2 -- arrived in October.

Even so, Modern Warfare 2 remains a big seller. The game is already bigger than Call of Duty: Vanguard after just a month of sales.

Another game that was weaker during November this year compared with 2021 was FIFA, which also pulled the numbers down.

Despite this, there were some notable standout game launches.

The official best-selling game of November was PlayStation's God of War Ragnarok. It was a huge launch for the PS5 and PS4 title. For its first three weeks on sale, the game has sold 62% more units than its predecessor (2018's God of War) managed.

69% of Ragnarok's sales were of the PS5 version, with the remainder on PS4.

Although God of War Ragnarok is No.1, the reality would have been different if Nintendo shared digital sales data -- and if you combine the sales of both Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. The two Pokémon titles together sold very slightly less than God of War Ragnarok, and so with digital included, Pokémon would have almost certainly been the best-selling product last month.

Across the two titles, 56% of sales were for the Violet version with nearly 44% for Scarlet.

Its first two weeks on the market were more than 17% bigger than what Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl managed last year, and 23.5% bigger than the debut of 2019's Pokémon Sword and Shield.

Also new this week are two titles from Sega, with Sonic Frontiers at No.6 and Football Manager 2023 at No.10.

Across the Top 20, six games were published by Sony and six by Nintendo.

Nintendo Switch still no.1, but Xbox and PlayStation grow

Across tracked European markets, 690,000 games consoles were sold in November, according to GSD. It's a drop of more than 21% over the year before.

This was mostly due to a drop in Nintendo Switch console sales. Last year, a new Mario Kart 8: Deluxe bundle drove huge Switch sales during the Black Friday period. It was also the second month of the new Switch OLED console.

Nevertheless, Switch was comfortably the No.1 selling console across Europe, with more than double the sales of second place: Sony's PlayStation 5.

Both PS5 (up 49%) and Xbox Series S and X (up 22%) had a bigger November this year than the year before.

Over in the world of peripherals, 1.8m accessories were sold across tracked European markets last month, a drop of 11% over November 2021.

The PS5 DualSense controller was easily the best-selling device, with sales up more than 66% over last November. Again, this is due to the arrival of a significant number of PS5 consoles.

Two million points and subscription cards were sold across Europe during November, a drop of nearly 19% year-on-year. Strong sales of PlayStation Store credit, Steam and Roblox Game Cards was offset by a decline in Xbox and Nintendo cards.

European GSD November 2022 Top 20 (Digital + Physical)

* Digital data unavailable

GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo Eshop. Major participating companies are 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. Nintendo and 505 Games are the notable absentees, alongside smaller studios.

Digital data includes games sold in 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 ion>and United Kingdom.

Physical data includes all games, but only those sold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

Console hardware sales cover Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Accessories sales cover the same markets, but doesn't include Switzerland.