Those knowledgeable boffins over at Gameindustry.biz have dropped some fascinating new insights based on GSD data which collects the majority of digital sales and all physical game sales in the UK.
According to the data, Helldivers 2 was easily the best-selling game of February here in the UK, beating out EA Sports FC 24 which came in second place. The GSD data also revealed more on how Helldiver 2’s sales have actually grown: during its second week on sale, it rose a whopping 115%, and then another 21% in week three. That’s highly unusual because usually games see their biggest spike in the first day or two and then it drops. To see a game consistently gain sales week by week is very rare indeed.
The data also revealed a surprisingly balanced split between PC and PS5 sales. 57% of all copies sold were on the PlayStation 5, leaving 43% on PC.
Then the article drops an interesting tidbit of info: Helldivers 2 has sold in three weeks 28% lower than Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 managed in a similar timeframe. 28% less is quite a lot, but Spider-Man 2 was a juggernaut IP following on from two strong games and backed up by a massive marketing campaign. Helldivers 2’s only advantage is being available on both console and PC, so I think selling three-quarters of what the Wall-Crawler managed is excellent.
However, the data is slightly annoying in that it doesn’t just outright say the numbers. We do know that Spider-Man 2 sold around 5m million copies in three weeks, but those are global numbers and I can’t find any UK-specific numbers.
Just for fun though, let’s assume Helldivers 2 has sold 28% less than Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 globally. That would put Helldivers 2 at approximately 3.6m copies sold, which would track because the last time we got solid numbers it was at roughly 3m copies. Another 600,000 sounds about right, and in fact, I wouldn’t be shocked if it was closing in on 4m, especially since it’s still the number 1 seller on Steam.
The good news for Sony continues as the PlayStation 5 was once again the best-selling console in the UK.
The Switch came in second, with the Xbox lagging behind in third. All the consoles were down 29% from last year, but the GFK data (which tracks console sales in the UK) suggests this may be because in January and February last year, sales spiked due to stock shortages easing up. There was also a notable Hogwarts Legacy effect. According to GfK, PS5 and Xbox sales grew 27% and 21% in February which they partially attribute to the Harry Potter spinoff.
Moving on we have Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in 4th place. Warner Bros. has already stated that it hasn’t met their expectations, and according to the GameIndustry.biz article, the sales are 20% lower than Gotham Knights and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, Warner Bros. does have some good news because Hogwarts Legacy, not content with being last year’s best-selling game, is sitting in the 6th spot. I dunno what spell it’s casting, but it’s very effective.
Skull and Bones has not done very well, either, reaching just 8th place with sales 75% lower than Sea of Thieves managed in 2018. Keep in mind, Sea of Thieves was an Xbox exclusive, whereas Skull and Bones is on most platforms.
There is a very big shadow looming over all this data in the form of Palworld. Apparently, Palworld is not included in the GSD system and thus none of its sales numbers are accounted for. By the start of February, the game had accrued an insane 19m players and sold 12m copies. Of course, those numbers have probably slowed down quite a bit, so it’s hard to say where it would land in the chart.