UK June 2023: PS5 and Diablo 4 No. 1; 82% of SF6, FFXVI, Diablo and F1 sales were digital

[Himura Kenshin]

From GI.biz,

UK GSD June2023 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)​

Position	Title
1	Diablo 4 (Activision Blizzard)
2	Final Fantasy 16 (Square Enix)
3	F123 (EA)
4	FIFA 23 (EA)
5	Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
6	The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
7	Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
8	Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)
9	NBA 2K23 (2K Games)
10	Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)

* Digital data unavailable

The latest GSD data shows that game sales are up 7%, which is a modest result considering the number of big releases in June compared with the same period last year.

SOFTWARE

Diablo 4 obliterated all competition to be the clear No.1 best-selling game in June.

It is actually the second fastest-selling game of the year after four weeks, behind Hogwarts Legacy. For those wondering 'what about Zelda?' Nintendo doesn't share its digital data with the GSD charts, which means we only have the game's physical sales to go on. In terms of the first four weeks, Zelda is tracking slightly behind Diablo, but that will likely be different if digital data was available for Nintendo's hit game.

57% of Diablo 4's sales were on PC. The remaining 43% of sales came on PS5, Xbox Series S and X and PS4.

Second place belongs to Final Fantasy 16. The Square Enix title's opening two weeks sales are 36% lower than the last major Final Fantasy game, which was Final Fantasy 7: Remake in April 2020. These results appear to be reflected in other markets, too. It seems like a disappointment, but Square Enix did celebrate the three million global sales milestone, which suggests it is satisfied with the result. There are a few factors to consider, including FF16's PS5 exclusivity, the congested release window and the fact the title is a departure from previous games in the series. The publisher has also been pushing its next major Final Fantasy release, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which is due early next year.

The third game in the charts is also a new release in F1 23. The first three weeks for the EA game are a significant drop on last year's racing title, with sales down 49%. As a franchise, F1's performance often fluctuates depending on the interest in the current F1 season.

Interestingly, F1 sold best on Xbox platforms, with Xbox Series S and X accounting for 48.5% of sales. PS5 accounted for 47.6%, and the remainder was on PS4 and PC.

The final new release in the charts is Street Fighter 6 at No.8. Capcom's game continues to be popular on PlayStation, with PS5 accounting for just over 52% of sales. PC accounted for 23% of sales, Xbox Series S and X with just over 17% and PS4 with more than 7%.

HARDWARE

PS5 is back as the top-selling console, with sales up 43% over May. This is due to a surge in sales of the standard PS5 bundled with God of War Ragnarok, which was reduced from £520 to £460 by retailers.

Nintendo Switch is down to No.2, with sales dropping 20%. The Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Special Edition console went from being the No.1 Switch console in April and May, to No.3 in June. It was a strong month for Xbox Series S and X (especially Series X). The platform is still in third place overall, but sales are up 31% month-on-month.

Year-to-date, 722,000 games consoles have been sold, a rise of 11% on the year before. This is due to the PS5, which has seen sales grow 66% year-on-year. Nintendo Switch sales are down 10% year-to-date, while Xbox sales are down 23%.

 

[Paul Gale Network]

Interesting data. Nintendo Switch was first in Japan and PlayStation 5 was first in UK…and in a little while we’ll find out about US. Threepeat for Nintendo or back to Sony?

Good competition!

 

[Gotdatmoney]

Switch Sales only being down 10% during H1 is incredible. Zelda truly has beome a titan.

 

[Fularu]

Interesting data. Nintendo Switch was first in Japan and PlayStation 5 was first in UK…and in a little while we’ll find out about US. Threepeat for Nintendo or back to Sony?

Good competition!

PS5 led due to heavy price promotions (520 to 460 is a prety generous promotion)

 

[Astrogamer]

Interesting data. Nintendo Switch was first in Japan and PlayStation 5 was first in UK…and in a little while we’ll find out about US. Threepeat for Nintendo or back to Sony?

Good competition!

Should be back to Sony because of Days of Play promotions. I think July should be Switch though with the not very great legs of FFXVI and the lack of new titles for PS5. Switch has Pikmin alongside Zelda's strong legs.

 

[derby_440]

In UK June deals were £479 with COD or Ragnarok. Maybe there were some stand alone £460 version deals.

In July PS5 was down to £453 with Ragnarok on amazon prime days.

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www.hotukdeals.com

 

[bf2142]

57% of Diablo 4's sales were on PC. The remaining 43% of sales came on PS5, Xbox Series S and X and PS4.

I wonder what does the split looks like worldwide, Probably even more PC heavy with the rest of Europe + Asia.

 

[unkindlynice]

Chris is being very naughty and misrepresentative looping all those games together as an overall digital figure.

Diablo eclipses these entirely. Give us the median but that is useless misleading nonsense.

 

[awng782]

The PC version of Diablo IV sold as much in 2 weeks as the PC version of Elden Ring in the entirety of 2022 (~181K).

 

[Xevross]

Yeah as a data analyst I can't help but wince at that tweet from Dring, it's horrifically misleading. Diablo 4 handily outsold the other 3 combined, so that 80% figure is basically just the Diablo figure weighted down a bit. Really weird.

I'll also quote my post from the weekly thread:

FF16 first two weeks was roughly 90k which means FF7R was roughly 140k first two weeks. Seems about right.

Diablo 4 outpacing TOTK physical after 4 weeks means Diablo 4 first 4 weeks is >312k.

Diablo 4 on console > 135k, so Diablo 4 console only easily outsold FF16 for the month. Decent chance the playstation sales of D4 were bigger than FF16 sales too.

 

[storres]

Yeah as a data analyst I can't help but wince at that tweet from Dring, it's horrifically misleading. Diablo 4 handily outsold the other 3 combined, so that 80% figure is basically just the Diablo figure weighted down a bit. Really weird.

I'll also quote my post from the weekly thread:


Diablo 4 on console > 135k, so Diablo 4 console only easily outsold FF16 for the month. Decent chance the playstation sales of D4 were bigger than FF16 sales too.

I think Dring did it to calm warring and doomisn around FFXVI.

 

[Xevross]

The PC version of Diablo IV sold as much in 2 weeks as the PC version of Elden Ring in the entirety of 2022 (~181K).

That doesn't seem right, what's your source?

Elden Ring sold 865k in 2022 and if PC kept it's 30% share from launch that would be 260k.

 

[HFbob]

I think Dring did it to calm warring and doomisn around FFXVI.

Which of true makes me think less of Dring, he's valuable because of his insight into numbers, not covering for corporations.

 

[storres]

Which of true makes me think less of Dring, he's valuable because of his insight into numbers, not covering for corporations.

Nahh, that's too far, imo.

Warring is what leads to less numbers and insight from analysts. At least, Dring interacts with us.

 

[awng782]

That doesn't seem right, what's your source?

Elden Ring sold 865k in 2022 and if PC kept it's 30% share from launch that would be 260k.

https://eraltd.org/media/72554/2023-era-yrbk_120323.pdf

Page 37 has a chart of Top PC Download sales

 

[HFbob]

Nahh, that's too far, imo.

Warring is what leads to less numbers and insight from analysts.

Like I said only if what you said is true. It's not his job to fight console warriors, and a really shitty job that no one would want anyway.

At least, Dring interacts with us.

Agreed, I know this issue has been contentious in the past so I'll drop it.

 

[allan-bh]

F1 2023 sold better on Xbox Series than PS5. I don't remember to see a game in this gen selling more on Xbox.

 

[MadMax]

Nahh, that's too far, imo.

Warring is what leads to less numbers and insight from analysts. At least, Dring interacts with us.

Isn't it because of pressure from the corporations? For example, media create no longer sharing Japanese sales data in 2019 because of Sony wanting to obfuscate their extremely poor sales in the region.

 

[Bodokoh]

Chris is being very naughty and misrepresentative looping all those games together as an overall digital figure.

Diablo eclipses these entirely. Give us the median but that is useless misleading nonsense.

At first he compared the box sales of FFXVI vs Diablo 4 and now he lumped their digital sales together.

 

[Seiez]

Yeah...can't say that I'm a fan of this style of reporting numbers. It is trying to paint a picture that is very skewed and is very misleading.

Him adding "context" also comes off very weird. I don't know how someone wouldn't call that biased. In reality I don't have a problem with biases, as long as people are transparent about them. It is okay to like certain things more and be open about it.

Doing it through the backdoor is the strange thing in this instance.

 

[salesguy]

XBS at least was up month over month, but I'm not even sure that is comforting given the Series X price increase was slated for August which may have pushed some buyers to get in now.

 

[derby_440]

taken from era

Absolute numbers should roughly be:

PS5: 53k
NSW: 31k
Xbox: 25k

 

[storres]

Isn't it because of pressure from the corporations? For example, media create no longer sharing Japanese sales data in 2019 because of Sony wanting to obfuscate their extremely poor sales in the region.

Probably a mixture of both. But for percentages and comments, I think the latter wins.

 

[Kenka]

Chris is being very naughty and misrepresentative looping all those games together as an overall digital figure.

Diablo eclipses these entirely. Give us the median but that is useless misleading nonsense.

You are right about the second sentence. The entirety of the PC sales are probably digital and a good chunk of the consoles release as well.
You are making an ass of yourself with the first. Let me explain: you chose 'misrepresentative' as you interpretation of Chris' choice. If you were in the business, what headline would you choose that would create curiosity around your work?

Which of true makes me think less of Dring, he's valuable because of his insight into numbers, not covering for corporations.

You are calling Chris a corporate shill?

Yeah...can't say that I'm a fan of this style of reporting numbers. It is trying to paint a picture that is very skewed and is very misleading.

Him adding "context" also comes off very weird. I don't know how someone wouldn't call that biased. In reality I don't have a problem with biases, as long as people are transparent about them. It is okay to like certain things more and be open about it.

Doing it through the backdoor is the strange thing in this instance.

Misleading? How. It's a stat. How is that misleading? What would you have preferred to have?

Whoever criticizes Chris will get reported to the mods by none other than me. And I am not a nice guy.

 

[Vena]

Let's avoid arguing over Dring again. It's fine to be skeptical of framing but don't turn this into a flame war between each other or against Dring.

As per the last time this happened, if you have qualms with Dring take it up with him directly on Twitter.

Misleading? How. It's a stat. How is that misleading? What would you have preferred to have?

It's less misleading so much as it's a weird sample, with a clear bias (the sample is biased, not speaking directly to the writer of the comment itself). Hence people taking issue with it, particularly those with a more statistics or mathematical background. It sticks out, it stuck out to me earlier too in the other thread where this was brought up.

 

[HFbob]

You are calling Chris a corporate shill?

I was responding to this post:

I think Dring did it to calm warring and doomisn around FFXVI.

 

[J.T.]

To be fair the comment on digital split is useless since lumping in Diablo 4 with those other titles so obviously skews the split toward digital.

 

[hroerekr]

Why not comment on digital split per game?

 

[enpleinjour]

FF7R 2 week estimated with digital GSD:

• FF16 70K opening -> FF7R 2W = 133K, Opening = 118K (assuming digital has same drop as physical during COVID)
• FF16 90K opening -> FF7R 2W = 172K, Opening = 152K(assuming digital has same drop as physical during COVID)

Diablo w/ digital (slightly ahead of Zelda ) -> 312K+
(-69%)(-37%)(*-37%), assumed = *

• Opening = 312+/1.63 = 191K+

191K is a big opening but not that spectacular compared to its crazy 9M+ sales in a week globally, expect PC heavy countries to carry more. We saw Germany had 600K monthly. Asia, basically China, must be big. US as well.

 

[derby_440]

FF7R 2 week estimated with digital GSD:

• FF16 70K opening -> FF7R 2W = 133K, Opening = 118K (assuming digital has same drop as physical during COVID)
• FF16 90K opening -> FF7R 2W = 172K, Opening = 152K(assuming digital has same drop as physical during COVID)

Diablo w/ digital (slightly ahead of Zelda ) -> 312K+
(-69%)(-37%)(*-37%), assumed = *

• Opening = 312+/1.63 = 191K+

191K is a big opening but not that spectacular compared to its crazy 9M+ sales in a week globally, expect PC heavy countries to carry more. We saw Germany had 600K monthly. Asia, basically China, must be big. US as well.

FF7r sold 185k with digital included in first 11 weeks.

Grand Theft Auto 5 sold over 400,000 copies during lockdown in the UK alone

Lockdown saw remarkable sales of video games in the UK. The Entertainment Retailers Association published sales data fo…

www.eurogamer.net

 

[Paul Gale Network]

PS5 led due to heavy price promotions (520 to 460 is a prety generous promotion)

Yeah, that's a considerable price drop.

Should be back to Sony because of Days of Play promotions. I think July should be Switch though with the not very great legs of FFXVI and the lack of new titles for PS5. Switch has Pikmin alongside Zelda's strong legs.

Zelda just did phenomenal for June. No doubt it helped NS sell well in June, world wide. It's still awesome to see a nearly 6.5 year old console, perform quite often, like it was brand new.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

Yeah as a data analyst I can't help but wince at that tweet from Dring, it's horrifically misleading. Diablo 4 handily outsold the other 3 combined, so that 80% figure is basically just the Diablo figure weighted down a bit. Really weird.

Depends on if he took a weighted average or a straight average. Due to how different the products are I wouldn't group them but really depends on the point he is trying to make. Without the individual ratios it is either quite misleading or actually a nothing burger.

Which to some extent may be the point.

 

[Oregano]

Depends on if he took a weighted average or a straight average. Due to how different the products are I wouldn't group them but really depends on the point he is trying to make. Without the individual ratios it is either quite misleading or actually a nothing burger.

Which to some extent may be the point.

Perhaps I read it wrong but I don't think it's an average, I think it's total sales of the games combined.

 

[The Tribal Chief]

We know FFXVI had a 55% digital split at launch so that framing is indeed sketchy as hell. Muddying the waters doesn't help anything; you'll just get a bunch of people going on about how the digital split in the UK is over 80% for games, when that is far from the case, in future discussions. I'd bet it's just Diablo and F1 skewing that figure notably.

 

[Aostia82]

Let's avoid arguing over Dring again. It's fine to be skeptical of framing but don't turn this into a flame war between each other or against Dring.

I get that, but is happening pretty often, recently, to see weird "framing", imho
that said, I think that on Twitter people asked for more details about this particular frame and he provided at least a little bit more insight: apart from Diablo, for example, the second highest selling game digitally among those was F1 - just to counter the possible "FFXVI doom-digging" critic (what I mean is that he provided more detailed info, once asked for)

Let me look for that Tweet maybe?

 

[MarcoP90]

To provide a bit more context, here's the quote from the article on the stat mentioned in the headline

Across the these four new releases, 82% of sales were via digital stores. The game with the highest digital share was Diablo 4, while Final Fantasy 16 had the lowest, which will be partially due to the platforms they’re on – Diablo is a major PC title, which is an almost 100% digital platform, while Final Fantasy 16 is a PS5 title, which still has a strong physical retail business.

 

[Aostia82]

To provide a bit more context, here's the quote from the article on the stat mentioned in the headline

Yup, and on Twitter he said F1 was the second, so..SFVI was the third HAHA





Q.FF Fan: What about if you take out Diablo 4 which was the best selling and mostly digital?
A. Chris Dring: F1

 

[enpleinjour]

FF7r sold 185k with digital included in first 11 weeks.

Grand Theft Auto 5 sold over 400,000 copies during lockdown in the UK alone

Lockdown saw remarkable sales of video games in the UK. The Entertainment Retailers Association published sales data fo…

www.eurogamer.net

Nice find. I think somewhere in the middle makes sense then. FF16 ~80K opening -> FF7R 2W ~ 150K , opening = 135K

 

[unkindlynice]

You are making an ass of yourself with the first. Let me explain: you chose 'misrepresentative' as you interpretation of Chris' choice. If you were in the business, what headline would you choose that would create curiosity around your work?

I called him naughty and criticised his use of data. That’s not making an ass of anyone and certainly not myself. He needs to provide the data for those games and Diablo separately if he wants to make any point at all.

 

[derby_440]

taken from era

Absolute numbers should roughly be:

PS5: 53k
NSW: 31k
Xbox: 25k

YTD would roughly be:
PS5: 341k
NSW: 213k
Xbox: 159k

 

[Kenka]

I called him naughty and criticised his use of data. That’s not making an ass of anyone and certainly not myself. He needs to provide the data for those games and Diablo separately if he wants to make any point at all.

You called the work of a professional data analyst misrepresentative. Misrepresentative of what?

It's data. It might not be the one you want but it is still data. Attacking someone doesn't make you look bright.

No matter who produces said info: don't get emotional, especially if it is delivered to you for free.

 

[LOCK]

Good to see the market is up at least.

 

[unkindlynice]

You called the work of a professional data analyst misrepresentative. Misrepresentative of what?

It's data. It might not be the one you want but it is still data. Attacking someone doesn't make you look bright.

No matter who produces said info: don't get emotional, especially if it is delivered to you for free.

It’s misrepresentative because it’s putting together data to provide a conclusion that doesn’t fit. Some people are going to read that and assume FF and F1 sold 80% on digital which is FAR from the case.

It’s obvious Diablo is the story of his tweet yet he’s chucking in a bunch of random games. Would you not agree it would be misrepresentative of me to say Nintendo has dominated the home console space since 2010 with the Wii U and Switch when you look at the total hardware sold over that period?

I don’t see any emotion in my comments.

 

[epicene101]

Good numbers all around. Very impressed with Switch still pulling these types of numbers and positions this late in its life.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

Perhaps I read it wrong but I don't think it's an average, I think it's total sales of the games combined.

Yeah reading it I see that now. It's kind of an odd way to go about it but my assumption is he wanted to show the acceleration of digital in terms of new releases. If those were the 4 biggest releases of the month (obviously Zelda was last month and contains no digital but was very likely ~50%. Not like we'll ever know though) I can see some logic. It would depend. If we get that kind of top 4 aggregate of the biggest releases every month we may be able to infer some things from the data. If I'm correct we normally don't get digital ratios for the month for many games. I'd have to look at the previous reports (which is unlikely tbh).

 

[KillerMan]

PS5 led due to heavy price promotions (520 to 460 is a prety generous promotion)

Well the original launch price was for disc PS5 was £449 so we are just getting closer to that. You get half free GoW with this bundle though.

 

[Fularu]

Well the original launch price was for disc PS5 was £449 so we are just getting closer to that. You get half free GoW with this bundle though.

People have short memories and they see a £60 promotion and go "OMG NOW'S THE TIME"

IT's rather typical

 

[SoonyXboneUhh]

I wonder what does the split looks like worldwide, Probably even more PC heavy with the rest of Europe + Asia.

Most likely above 80%

 

[FinalLarry]

Dring’s tweet is borderline dishonest but nobody bats 100%. I assume he really likes Final Fantasy and this is a one off. I wonder if he will report additional data like this moving forward.

 

[kimbo99]

Dring’s tweet is borderline dishonest but nobody bats 100%. I assume he really likes Final Fantasy and this is a one off. I wonder if he will report additional data like this moving forward.

Which tweet is that?