Full list of 2024’s best-selling games is brutally depressing reading

Three football players from game EA Sports FC 25, including Jude Bellingham celebrating a goal — The UK still loves football, it turns out (EA)

EA Sports FC 25 is the best-selling game of 2024 in the UK, but the majority of the top 10 consists of games from previous years.

Gaming has been dominated by Call Of Duty and sports games for decades in the West, but this year’s list of best-sellers paint a particularly bleak picture for the industry at large.

There’s already data to show live service games like Fortnite and Roblox are limiting the time people spend playing new games, and it seems that is partly impacting, in certain territories at least, the overall sales of new games in 2024.

According to figures compiled by Nielsen from December 31, 2023 to December 7, 2024, there are only four new games released in 2024 in the UK’s top 10 best-selling games of the year – and two of those are from established yearly franchises.

Unsurprisingly, EA Sports FC 25 was the best-selling game of 2024 on these shores, with the only other new games in the top 10 being Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 at number three, The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom at nine, and Super Mario Party Jamboree at ten.

The rest, meanwhile, is made up of games from previous years, including Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 24, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Minecraft, and Nintendo Switch Sports.

According to GamesIndustry.biz editor Christopher Dring, it was a similar picture across the whole of Europe. ‘Overall, video game sales across Europe were relatively robust in 2024,’ he wrote on X. ‘But it was a brutal year for new releases.’

UK top 10 best-selling video games of 2024

EA Sports FC 25
Hogwarts Legacy
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6
EA Sports FC 24
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Minecraft
Nintendo Switch Sports
The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom
Super Mario Party Jamboree

Dring states there were only three new games inside the top 10 for Europe: EA Sports FC 25, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Helldivers 2. The closest contenders were Warhammer: 40,000: Space Marine 2 at number 12 and Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero at number 13.

‘Games like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Star Wars: Outlaws, Dragon Age: The Veilguard… are all outside the top 30,’ he added.

While the growth of live service titles is one reason for the lack of new games in the top 10, the fact new games often cost upwards of £70 is probably the other – especially as you can usually wait for a few months and pick them up at a much cheaper price.

As for the best-selling games in the US, it was a marginally better picture for new titles. EA Sports College Football 25 was the top-seller, ahead of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, Helldivers 2, and Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. The rest of the top 10, however, was mostly dominated by sports titles like Madden NFL 25, EA Sports FC 25, and last year’s Call Of Duty.

If you want to see the clear difference in tastes between the West and Japan, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake topped that country’s list, followed by Super Mario Party Jamboree, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, with no Call Of Duty in sight.

US top 10 best-selling video games of 2024

EA Sports College Football 25 screenshot — EA Sports College Football 25 – not a hit in Europe (EA)

EA Sports College Football 25
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6
Helldivers 2
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Madden NFL 25
EA Sports FC 25
EA Sports MVP Bundle
Elden Ring
Dragon’s Dogma 2

The problem of no-one playing new game is present on PC as well, as can clearly be seen from Steam stats. The Steam end-of-year review shows only 15% of users’ total play time was spent in games that launched in 2024, 47% of the time was in games which are up to seven years old, while 37% was spent in games that are over eight years old.

While this doesn’t look great, there is actually a silver lining on the PC front. The 15% figure is, believe it or not, an increase on the 9% playtime spent on new games in 2023; although it is still lower than the 17% of time spent in 2022.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, global game revenue grew by 0.2% in 2024 over the previous year, to $184.3 billion. This minor growth was carried by mobile games, which grew 2.8%, while console and PC games were down 4% and 0.2% year-on-year.

If 2024 was a somewhat flat financial year for the industry, analysts are expecting next year to be significantly bigger, due to the expected launch of GTA 6 and Nintendo’s next console.