It was a very quiet July for video game releases in the UK, with EA Sports College Football 25 being the highest-charting new title at number 7.
The new American football game is off to a strong start considering the sport's relatively limited popularity in the UK. Sales of the game are more than double those achieved by Madden NFL 24 in its first two weeks last year.
The best-selling game in the UK in July was EA Sports FC 24, which is no surprise considering there were European football championships taking place during the first part of the month (with England reaching the final). In fact, EA Sports FC 24 sold 46% more copies in July than FIFA 23 did during the same period last year.
At number 6 is Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, which is climbing the charts following the release of its new expansion, Dawntrail, on July 2.
Overall, PC and console game sales fell by 2.9% compared to July last year, with 2.35 million games sold in the UK. The top six spots are all games released before 2024, demonstrating how quiet the last few months have been when it comes to major game releases.
PlayStation continues to dominate the UK console market
Sales of video game consoles fell by 22% month-on-month to just over 77,000 units sold (GfK panel data). This also represents a 30% drop compared to the same period in 2023.
The PS5 remains No. 1 despite a 31% drop in sales from the previous month, the Switch rises to No. 2 after a 9% sales drop, while the Xbox Series S and X fall to No. 3 after a 19% sales drop.
The highlight of July is that the PS5 hit four million sales in the UK, 31 weeks behind the PS4 (it’s now the fifth best-selling console in the UK). You can read more about this here.
In terms of accessories, more than 540,000 products were sold across the UK in July, down 17% on June but only 4% less than the same month last year.
In terms of revenue, GfK reveals that the best-selling device is the PlayStation Portal (followed by the white DualSense controller). This follows a similar report from Circana on accessory sales in the US. In terms of volume, the Portal is number 11 in accessory sales so far this year.
“In the UK, the Sony PlayStation Portal Remote Player has consistently been the number 1 or 2 selling gaming accessory since its launch in November 2023,” reveals Dorian Bloch, GfK's gaming director. “Only in January this year did it fall out of the top two spots due to stock issues.”
UK GSD Top 10 July 2024 (Digital & Physical)
| Position | Qualification |
| 1 | EA Sports FC 24 (EA) |
| 2 | Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) |
| 3 | Elden Ring (Bandai Namco) |
| 4 | Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) |
| 5 | Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) |
| 6 | Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn (Square Enix) |
| 7 | EA Sports 25 College Football (EA) |
| 8 | F1 24 (EA) |
| 9 | NBA 2K24 (2K Games) |
| 10 | Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (Nintendo)* |
* Digital data not available
GSD digital data includes games from participating companies sold via digital storefronts on PC, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Eshop. Key participating companies are Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, CD Projekt, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group (including Gearbox, Koch Media, and Sabre Interactive), Focus Entertainment, Kepler, Konami, Marvellous Games, Microids, Microsoft (including Bethesda), Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Tencent, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Nintendo and 505 Games are notable absentees, along with smaller studios.