Switch Leading and FIFA 22 Dominating – UK Game and Console Sales 2021

GamesIndustry.biz author Christopher Dring posted data for console and video game sales in the UK in 2021. The report was prepared by the analytical firms GfK and GSD.

During the year, 35.8 million games, 3.36 million consoles and 10.6 million various game accessories were sold in the country.

Among the consoles, the leader was the Nintendo Switch, which bypassed the PlayStation 5 at the end of the year. Half a million consoles were sold between November and December, helped by Mario Kart 8: Deluxe and the OLED version of the console. This is the second biggest year for the Switch.

In third place were the Xbox Series. 43% came from Series X, although the numbers are uneven for the year as a whole. 24% of sales were from July to September, and from October to December Series X outsold Series S.

Overall, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo sales combined were up 14% compared to 2020.

Games are also doing well, although sales have fallen by 16% compared to 2020. 20.5 million games were digital and 15.3 were retail. EA has become a leader in the digital segment, and Nintendo in retail.

The best-selling game of 2021 in the UK is FIFA 22. It outperforms FIFA 21 by 10.3%. Call of Duty: Vanguard is 36.1% below Black Ops Cold War. The third best-selling game was GTA V, with a 23% drop in sales compared to 2020.

Top 25 from GSD (figure + retail):

1. FIFA 22 (EA)

2. Call of Duty: Vanguard (Activision Blizzard)

3. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)

4. FIFA 21 (EA)

5. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Activision Blizzard)

6. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)

7. Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Sony)

8. F1 2021 (EA / Codemasters)

9. Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft)

10. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)

11. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*

12. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)*

13. Resident Evil Village (Capcom)

14. Battlefield 2042 (EA)

15. Minecraft: Switch Edition (Nintendo/Mojang)*

16. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (Nintendo)*

17. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)

18. Mortal Kombat 11 (Warner Bros.)

19. LEGO Harry Potter Collection (Warner Bros)

20. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Nintendo)*

21. Minecraft (Single)

22. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Square Enix)

23. Just Dance 2022 (Ubisoft)

24. NBA 2K21 (2K Games)

25. The Crew 2 (Ubisoft)

* – digital sales are not taken into account.

Leading among the accessories are the black DualSense, the black Xbox controller and the white Pulse 3D headphones.