Special edition Zelda console boosts Nintendo Switch sales | UK Monthly Charts

It was a tough April for the UK PC and console games market, with sales down on games and hardware.

Just under 111,000 consoles were sold in the UK during the month (GfK figures), which is 20% down over March. However, the figures are 20% up over April last year.

PS5 was the No.1 console of the month once again, followed by Nintendo Switch and then Xbox Series S and X.

PS5 sales fell 35% over March, but is up 15% compared with April last year. Meawhile, Xbox Series S and X sales are down 32% over March, but up 8% over the same period the year before.

However, the big winner of the month was the Nintendo Switch, which was up 26% over March and 30% up over April 2022. This was mostly due to the new Zelda edition of the console, which was released right at the end of the month (and two weeks before the game), but it still managed to account for 29% of all Switch consoles sold last month.

In terms of video games, 2.2 million PC and console titles were sold across the UK last month, a drop of 8% over April last year (GSD data).

This is based on all physical game sales, plus digital sales from most major AAA publishers (the full list is below, Nintendo is the notable absentee).

The best-selling game was comfortably Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which shot to No.1 after just a week on sale. It's a strong start, with launch sales up 31% over its 2019 predecessor: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Fallen Order's digital sales accounted for 36% of its total sales, while Survivor's digital sales accounted for 66% -- another clear indicator on how digital has accelerated from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic.

Dead Island 2 makes No.2 with a strong launch, although the data doesn't go far enough back to compare to the original, which came out in 2011.

However, those two big releases couldn't match the launch sales of last year's big April release: LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Finally, just under 487,000 accessories and add-on products were sold in the UK last month (GfK data), which is down 21% over March and 6% down over April 2022.

After a month away from the top spot, the PS5 White DualSense controller retakes No.1, while last month's top seller, the Xbox Wireless Controller Carbon Black, drops to No.3.

UK GSD April 2023 Top 10 (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, Kepler, 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.