Top 20 UK video game sales are 38% physical
Diablo 4 was 85% digital, while Spider-Man 2 was just 46% digital
A new chart from the Entertainment and Retail Association has revealed the digital and physical sales splits for the 20 best-selling games in the UK.
The data is based on GSD and GfK figures, and shows that there is still a substantial number of games sold via physical stores.
EA Sports FC 24, which was the best-selling game in the UK last year, sold 2.395 million units in 2023. 67.2% of the sales (1.61 million) came via PlayStation Network, Steam, Xbox Live and Nintendo eShop, while 786,000 (32.8%) came via physical outlets, including Amazon, GAME and Tesco.
It's a similar number for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (No.3), which saw 69% of its 1.24 million sales come via digital shops.
However, Hogwarts Legacy (No.2) was a lot more physical friendly, with just 56% of its 1.92 million sales coming via digital stores.
And there are some games that even did better as a physical retail release than a digital one, with over 53% of Spider-Man 2 sales coming via physical stores (note: digital codes sold with hardware counts as a physical release).
If we remove Nintendo games from the list (which are only tracked physically due to Nintendo's reluctance to share digital data), 38% of the Top 20 games were sold via boxed game retailers.
Top 20 Combined UK Chart with Digital Split
| Position | Title | Total Sales | Physical Sales | Digital Sales | Digital Split |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EA Sports FC 24 | 2,395,996 | 785,873 | 1,610,123 | 67.2% |
| 2 | Hogwarts Legacy | 1,921,143 | 847,040 | 1,074,103 | 55.9% |
| 3 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 | 1,238,683 | 388,023 | 850,660 | 68.7% |
| 4 | FIFA 23 | 747,902 | 286,748 | 461,154 | 61.7% |
| 5 | Spider-Man 2 | 654,731 | 350,773 | 303,958 | 46.4% |
| 6 | Grand Theft Auto 5 | 615,677 | 178,372 | 437,305 | 71% |
| 7 | Star Wars Jedi: Survivor | 553,323 | 218,541 | 334,782 | 60.5% |
| 8 | Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | 498,159 | 498,159 | N/A | N/A |
| 9 | Diablo 4 | 442,874 | 67,600 | 375,274 | 84.7% |
| 10 | Super Mario Bros. Wonder | 429,686 | 429,686 | N/A | N/A |
| 11 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 411,725 | 68,871 | 342,854 | 83.3% |
| 12 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 378,889 | 130,511 | 248,127 | 65.5% |
| 13 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe | 357,889 | 357,889 | N/A | N/A |
| 14 | Assassin's Creed Mirage | 352,228 | 171,658 | 180,570 | 51.3% |
| 15 | Resident Evil 4 | 321,117 | 144,675 | 176,442 | 54.9% |
| 16 | God of War: Ragnarok | 261,303 | 197,823 | 63,480 | 24.3% |
| 17 | Lego Star Wars: Skywalker Saga | 254,623 | 160,985 | 93,638 | 36.8% |
| 18 | F1 23 | 248,997 | 62,045 | 186,952 | 75.1% |
| 19 | NBA 2K23 | 246,154 | 31,698 | 214,456 | 87.1% |
| 20 | Minecraft | 245,913 | 195,584 | 50,329 | 20.5% |
*Physical data GfK. Digital data GSD. Nintendo does not supply digital data. All Physical Stores. PSN, Xbox Live Arcade, eShop and PC Steam digital stores.