Hogwarts Legacy had the sixth biggest launch for a video game in Europe in the last six years.
Hogwarts Legacy had a bigger launch than every Call of Duty game released since 2017 and other breakout hits like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Elden Ring.
Launch sales outperformed those of each Call of Duty game published during the previous six years combined.
Since the European charts’ inception six years ago, Hogwarts Legacy’s launch was the sixth largest for a video game.
Only FIFA games are placed ahead of it. Hogwarts Legacy therefore had a larger launch than every Call of Duty game that has been released since 2017, in addition to other significant hits like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Elden Ring.
Hogwarts Legacy has only been available for three weeks, yet it has already surpassed FIFA 23, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Elden Ring to become the sixth most popular game of the past twelve months.
Despite the wild success of the Warner Bros. game, there were 12.9 million games sold in Europe in February, a 10% decrease from the same month last year.
Game sales for the majority of the major European markets are included in this GSD data (including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and more). Also, all major publishers’ digital game sales across all European markets are included. At the end of the piece are all the specifics.
The decrease in game sales is the result of less large new releases in February compared to the previous year, which had Elden Ring, Horizon: Forbidden West, Dying Light 2, and Total War: Warhammer 3 among other notable releases. Pokémon Legends: Arceus had good second-month sales as well.
Legacy games also didn’t do as well this year. Sales of Mario Kart 8: Deluxe are down 39%, and sales of GTA 5 are down 35% from February of the previous year. The significant exception, with sales increasing 6% from the previous year, is Red Dead Redemption 2.
Atomic Heart, a war shooter, is the following new product to reach the top ten.
As a result of the HBO TV series based on the games, The Last of Us Part 2 and The Last of Us Remastered both shot up the rankings. Remastered sales increased by 285%, while Part 2 sales increased by 317% over February of last year.
This ranking does not cover every significant console and PC game released in February. The Metroid Prime Remastered game from Nintendo, which surprisingly released on the Nintendo Eshop in the middle of the month, is absent since Nintendo is the only major AAA game publisher that doesn’t share its digital data. Moreover, Sons of the Forest, a highly anticipated survival game, is not present because games from the majority of smaller publishers are currently not included.
In terms of consoles, sales of the PS5 increased significantly in Europe last month, increasing five times over February of the previous year. Due to significant stock shortages around the world, PS5 sales started off the year quite slowly.
Several European markets are covered by the hardware data from GSD, but the UK and Germany, two of the largest, are left out. The UK hardware report is available here for reading.
The PS5 easily outsold the Nintendo Switch, which came in second with sales that were more than double that of the PS5. Switch sales in Europe are down 28%, reflecting a decrease in the UK. The second quarter of the year will see Nintendo make its next significant push for the Switch, with promotions for both the new Zelda game and the Mario movie planned.
Although Xbox Series S and X is currently in third place in Europe, Microsoft saw a 13% rise in sales over February of previous year.
In the accessories category, 1.27 million products were sold last month throughout European markets, a minor decline of 0.2%. The console market has helped this sector grow, and sales of the PS5 DualSense controller are still robust.
1.15 million of these cards were sold in Europe for points and wallets, which is an 8% decrease from the previous year.