PS5’s momentum continued unabated in June 2023, where the console topped the UK’s best-selling hardware list after briefly being nudged aside by the Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The Mario maker’s machine slipped 20 per cent month-over-month, while Sony’s system saw a 43 per cent increase over May, boosted by some retailer promotions on its God of War Ragnarok bundle.
As for software, digital ruled supreme among the hottest new releases, with an eye-watering 82 per cent of Diablo 4, Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy 16, and F1 23’s sales coming courtesy of virtual storefronts like the PS Store. Blizzard’s latest was the best-selling of the lot, but Final Fantasy 16 came in one position behind, which is impressive considering it’s only on a single system.
F1 23, meanwhile, was the third best-selling game of the month, while Street Fighter 6 was forced to settle for eighth place. Of note, the Capcom fighter sold 52 per cent of its copies on PS5, with a further seven per cent flogged on PS4. Xbox Series X|S accounted for just 17 per cent of the overall share, with PC mopping up the rest. We’ve included the top ten, which accounts for digital and physical sales, below.
UK Sales Charts: June 2023 (Physical and Digital)
- Diablo 4
- Final Fantasy 16
- F1 23
- FIFA 23
- Hogwarts Legacy
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom*
- Grand Theft Auto 5
- Street Fighter 6
- NBA 2K23
- Red Dead Redemption 2
* No digital data included
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 30
Surprised that Xbox only account for 20% of SF6 I expected it much more even.
God of war Ragnarok probably over 15 million by now
You can trip and fall over a copy of Grand Theft Auto 5 at this point.
As much as I like physical media for games, I wish I was in an area where I had a better internet speed cause I would likely just go all digital for convenience sake, and only buy physical for certain games that I really want on my shelf.
I have a pretty big Steam library and having it readily available to me digitally is really nice.
I used to say I’d never go digital.. gotta say these days it’s all I buy
@PsBoxSwitchOwner
Microsoft is training their fans to not buy games. They'll wait until it comes to Game Pass.
I’ve probably bought more physical games this year than ever before.
Not great news for the shrink wrap dust collectors i suppose.
Normally I always buy physical , however I just decided to buy FF16 digitally as i had a top up card of 70 pounds... Well I'll never make this mistake again as the game is just not for me couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried. So it'll sit in my library forever without touching it . I'm afraid digital only future is inevitable because that's what publishers want, but I hope I we can enjoy physical releases still for a couple of years
That 82% figure is very misleading
And people even think xbox will ever be in the same conversation
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Most fighting games have traditionally done much better on Playstation as it's basically been positioned as the main console of choice for people who enjoy fighters
@StrawberryTurtle i thought the same thing about RDR2. Favorite game all time, so i won’t complain. But shocked to see it crack top 10. 😊
I bought SF6 on PS5 Digitally and Diablo 4 on Series X digitally. Just need to at some point get FF16 digitally. Digital works best for me, but i still hope physical sticks around for those that like it.
Despite loud voices from PC gamers, it only represents quite a small proportion. MAybe they are just pirating after spending a fortune on their rigs?
I prefer digital for convenience but lately I am buying more physical games as they are so much cheaper which is crazy as digital doesn't have packaging, retailer percentage, transportation costs etc.
@StrawberryTurtle I bought it about a month ago. I think it was around 50% off. I haven’t started it yet because tbh it looks pretty intimidating lol
My bigger concern with digital that no one seems to talk about is how you are letting yourself get ripped off. Even if you want the convenience of a digital library we as gamers could force that if we would demand it. I get inflation, I get games are technically cheaper now at 70 than they were at 30 in the 90's here in the states. But games going to 70 dollars while dropping the middle man, dropping the manual, dropping production cost and not having to compete with second hand market is the corporations totally sticking it to this generation. You are paying more for less. If you buy FF 16 and its just not your thing and you bought it digitally you screwed yourself and Square loves you for it. If like 15 years ago you bought that game and it just wasn't your thing you could immediately sell it and make 75 to 90 percent of your money back. I argue with my son about this all the time, drives me nuts. What we should be doing is telling these companies "hey you cut out my manual to save money so throw in a digital copy of the game and tie the disk to a digital key". In this way I could yes sell disk but the digital copy would be burned. We are so letting ourselves get raked over the coals I just do not get it. Me personally being 40 understand the value of nostalgia and these younger kids 30 years from now cannot pull out a digital code and let their kids look at it or pass it on either. SMH
@HOWARDSROCK Different strokes for different folks, they say... here in Mexico the digital games are God send because you can buy recent games and very old games at low prices, you'll be impressed to see Batman Gotham knight at USD50 in retailers, while in the last sale it is USD5 or 7??... and here, they never give you more than 20% of your money back, like never, being the Naughties or early 2K... but you forgot a wee detail: region lock, because if you buy a cheap game from Asia, you cannot play it in America, now with digital it really does not matter... I understand your point but it ain't that bad to go digital, specially when you travel a lot.
@Mauzuri thats not exactly true. If ever servers go down, games will be available to you installed on your hard disc. You can still download all PS3 games you purchased. Blu-Ray discs dont last forever either, i'm sure NVme are more durable
So, as an interesting thought experiment, what would Diablo 4 sales be like if it was on GamePass? And would more people subscribe if it was?
@Geep you've got a point, console, especially ps5 and Nintendo digital vs physical is probably not quite so huge.
@Th3solution huge increase the first month for sure. But retention, I'm not so sure.
@Splat I'm honestly surprised RDR 2 is still on there
I bought Diablo 4 PS4-PS5 cross gen edition on disc for £10 less than the digital store edition.
Now, apart from the jet engine disc drive spinning up, the bloody thing insists on installing and patching the PS4 version as well as the PS5 version!? Anyone know a way to stop the tub o' lard from installing both copies??!
@PsBoxSwitchOwner these are UK numbers so not shocking. I wish we had reliable access to global sales numbers. UK has never been a good measuring stick for global trends.
@Tharsman yet the UK is one of the closer markets between the two.
@SgtTruth there's more benefits, games tend to be cheaper physically, I mean I picked up Deathloop for £6 from cex, I don't think it's even come close to that digitally.
Lend to friends also.
And preservation is still a big deal. Yes sure maybe in 40 years when whatever has happened and Sony, steam, Microsoft might just be memories in a history book, the data on those discs could be the only thing left even without patches.
@SgtTruth You bring up a ton of valid points.
I definitely like digital on my PC through Steam and even emulation is such a big benefit due to being able to upscale the resolution of games without wading through the crapshoot retro game market, buying a retrotink to upscale a game etc.
I legit get where you're coming from and I'll definitely remember it.
@Balosi Games on PC can be dirt cheap too, you just have to browse storefronts like Humble or Fanatical. I got Deathloop on PC through a Humble Bundle last year for $15 and it included a ton of other games too.
Digital games are so convenient and I hate plastic cases but I’ll still buy physical games until digital releases are decently priced! Can not drop 70£ for a digital game on day one when I can easily save at least 10£ ordering a day 1physical copy that I will also sell when finished…
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