The UK monthly video game sales chart for March 2024 – WholesGame

After a relatively slow start to the year, the month of March saw a significant rise in video game sales of just over 25% compared to the previous year. Last month, throughout the UK, a total of 3.65 million console and PC titles were purchased – both physically and digitally combined.

Helldivers 2, Sony’s newest squad-based shooter, topped the charts as the top-selling title for the second month straight. However, the rise in sales across the UK in March was also due to the highly-anticipated launches of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and WWE2K24.

Even though Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was technically launched on February 29, the charts in March will be remembered for the showdown between the two Japanese RPGs – with Dragon’s Dogma 2 being the other one.

Even though both games sold well and the numbers were pretty close, Dragon’s Dogma 2 came out on top – even though it didn’t release until March 21 – and ended the month at No.3 in the charts. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, on the other hand, had to settle for the No.5 spot.

Slamming its way in between the two sword-slashing adventure games and pinning down the No.4 spot for March was WWE 2K24. The release of the annual wrestling game enjoyed a better start this year than that of its predecessor. Sales on WWE2K24 are now at least 8% more than that of 2K23 after four weeks of comparative release.

One somewhat unexpected title to enter the charts this past month was a title whose name hasn’t been mentioned in years, Command & Conquer. At the start of March, EA released a 17-game C&C ultimate collection on Steam, and both ‘Red Alert 2’ and ‘Generals’ made it into the Top 10, with eight other titles also making it into the Top 20.

This C&C big bundle release completely took over the charts, meaning that other new releases and IPs, such as Rise of Ronin and Princess Peach: Showtime were further down the charts than they would have been otherwise and had to settle for places outside the top 20.

Although software sales are on an upward trend, the same can’t exactly be said for the hardware side of things. In the UK throughout March, close to 117,000 consoles were sold, and despite this being an increase of around 22% compared to figures from February, it is actually a decrease of over 15% compared to last March.

The PlayStation 5 was once again the top seller, with around 25% more sales than in February. However, when juxtaposed with figures from last March, sales are down by around 9%. This could be due, in part, to the PS5 finally becoming fully available this time last year and experiencing a massive increase in sales as a result.

Things are similar across the other console platforms, with sales of the Nintendo Switch up by roughly 20% from the previous month, but down by around 20% from the previous year. It’s pretty much the same story with the Xbox Series X/S, sales of which also increased by around 19% from the month before, but also experienced a decrease of 18% when compared with figures from March 2023.

In the accessories department, during March gamers purchased a staggering 732,584 accessories in the UK. Where this differs from console sales is that sales on accessories were both up from February by 20%, and up again compared to last March by around 16%.

Game controllers have been flying off the shelves so far this year, with the PS5 again leading the pack. Both the Midnight Black and White version DualSense controllers were the No.1 and No.3 best-selling controllers respectively, with the DualSense Edge also taking the No.2 spot.

However, it should be stated that the White DualSense actually sold more units, but with the DualSense Edge retailing for £209 compared to the £57 price point for the standard Black and White models, the Edge was technically able to generate more revenue overall.

The only other real controller-related entry of note this past month was the new pink Joy-Cons for the Nintendo Switch, coinciding with the release of Princess Peach: Showtime, and although it sold relatively well, it came nowhere close to the PS5 controller numbers.

In conjunction with the success of game controller sales, PC gaming keyboards and gaming mice have also been selling pretty well in 2024. Swiss manufacturer, Logitech, is leading the market with the G502, G305, and G203 models. In fact, the top 10 highest-grossing gaming mice were all from Logitech.

As far as keyboards go, the Trust GXT-830 and GXT-865 led the way, with the Logitech G213 just behind – both GXT models were on sale in March. In terms of numbers, Add-on products also sold well throughout March and continue to be one of the best-selling facets of the industry.