This is according to a year-end industry report from GSD, which shares sales data for both the retail and digital markets. According to the data shared with GI.biz, in terms of hardware, 2 million consoles sold in 2022, a 29% decline year-over-year (yoy). The decline was attributed to PlayStation 5 and Switch sales, which consumers bought less of during the year. In the case of PS5, stock shortages plagued the console for most of 2022, which brought sales down 33% compared to 2021. Switch sales were also down by 27.5%, yet it was still the best-selling console for the year in the UK. Xbox Series X/S was the third best-selling console, but it too suffered from lack of stock which caused a 15% decline yoy. For the year, software sales fell by 6%, yet sales of new games saw a 20% uptick. The GSD report states 34.2 million games sold in 2022, a 6% decline yoy. Digital storefront sales dropped 3.4% over 2021, with 20 million games sold, and physical sales fell by 9% to 14.2 million. A lack of interest in older titles was the main factor in the software sales decline. That said, newer releases saw a 20% yoy increase in sales to 13.9 million. For 2022, the best-selling games in the UL were FIFA 23, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Elden Ring, and GTA 5, respectively. Sales of cases, controllers, and headphones fell 13% yoy to 9.22 million. The best-selling accessory of 2022 was the DualSense White Controller, followed by the Midnight Black version. The best-selling third-party accessory was Turtle Beach’s black Ear Force Recon 50X Headset for Xbox.
