Thanks To Starfield, UK Xbox Sales Enjoyed A Huge Increase In September

"A big Starfield-shaped boost"

by Fraser Gilbert Fri 20th Oct 2023

Thanks To Starfield, UK Xbox Sales Were Up 136% In September

We've finally got some details on the UK sales figures for September courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz, and it's definitely good reading for the team at Xbox - mainly due to the very successful launch of Starfield!

According to the outlet, sales for the Xbox Series X and S increased month-on-month by a whopping 136% in September, with the Series X just about proving the most popular, followed by the 512GB Series S and 1TB Series S.

"The Xbox platforms benefitted from the release of Starfield, with sales up 136% month-on-month."

In total, game console sales jumped 44% last month, with PlayStation 5 still taking the lead overall, and Nintendo Switch coming in third place. Xbox controllers sold very well too, with six of them in the top ten best-selling accessories list.

As for Starfield specifically, it was actually beaten to the top spot in the charts by EA Sports FC 24, but nevertheless fared very well. In terms of Xbox first-party, Its launch was "narrowly behind" Forza Horizon 5 for pure sales. The outlet also mentions that two-thirds of Starfield's sales were for the PC version rather than Xbox Series X and Series S.

All in all, a very successful month for Xbox in the UK! Let's see if that momentum continues into October...

Any surprises here for you? Let us know down in the comments section below.

[source gamesindustry.biz]

Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.

1
OldGamer999
Fri 20th Oct 2023

2 thirds sold on PC. Assuming gamepass is equal in proportion on console and PC.
It is simple Xbox don’t sell or give or promote with deals their console sales in the UK.

Lets be honest it’s 136% of not a lot and still down on console sales in the UK compared to September 2022.
So much propaganda and nothing figures really.

2
BAMozzy
Fri 20th Oct 2023

As expected - a growth in Sales around the release of Starfield and not surprising it doesn't take the 'top' spot as Starfield isn't 'exclusive' to just Series S/X hardware, meaning that people don't 'need' a Series S/X to play - its an option, a choice.

As I said a few days ago, I bet MS did see a rise in Console sales - even if it wasn't enough to overtake Sony who had some big discounts on their PS5 with their 'new' Slim coming at a higher cost and with Spider-Man 2 and ONLY on Playstation MW3 beta coming, Sony maintained their 'top spot'. Its not as if everyone who wants to play Starfield had to buy a Series S/X in September or 'Miss Out'

3
Cikajovazmaj
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Very positive spin you put there. If I'm not mistaken, it is actually 35% down compared to September last year, which is bad given Xbox is actually putting out some games this year. Realistically, only thing it could be is souring people on the brand as product is finally getting there now.

4
armondo36
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Weird, right? It's almost like if you actually manage to put decent games on the shelf people will buy your console...

5
PsBoxSwitchOwner
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Awesome that it increased in the UK. It should be boosting sales. Regardless if you can play on a phone or wherever.

6
OldGamer999
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Cikajovazmaj
Correct you are spot on as put that as well
So even with 136% console sale increase just for September 2023 on Starfield release month
Console sales were down 35% UK compared to September 2022.

7
MinervaX
Fri 20th Oct 2023

It has been fascinating to see people trying to spin the success of Starfield in a negative light over the last couple of days.

8
Fenbops
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Starfield was my most anticipated game this year and I’ve still not started it 🤣 just too much else to play. I’ll get to it though.

9
Banjo-
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Microsoft can release more and better games, sell more consoles, have more people subscribed to Game Pass and still get the same negative comments. Like when they say Game Pass is not profitable, yet Starfield is not only popular on Game Pass but also the best-selling game in USA, all of it while Game Pass numbers keep increasing and in a year full of excellent games. So, Microsoft releases more and better games, sells more hardware, more software and more subscriptions, but they are not doing well anyways. Most of them don't have a clue. Otherwise, they would complain about the longer queues for playing Game Pass Cloud.

10
Titntin
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Theres no point in the defence force discounting a 35% drop in sales compared to last year.
I am personally delighted that sales increased on the back of the great Starfield release, but I'd like to see that momentum continue and hope the ABK news might help this increase to grow. More advertising from MS could help too.
Im convinced that if more people genuinely realised the extreme value of game pass, then the momentum can grow, but it needs MS to put this under peoples noses so they finally get it. Putting our fingers in our ears will not help drive the growth the platform deserves.
This is a good start, but surely we all want more?

11
GeeEssEff
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Banjo- Minor correction: Starfield was the best selling game of September in the US….not the year. As of a couple days ago it’s the 7th best selling game of the year which is still a great achievement.

12
Cikajovazmaj
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Banjo- Starfield is best selling game in September, not year. It is the year that had some real heavy hitters that were not on any subscription, outselling that is going to be tough with GP model.
@Titntin absolutely agreed. On the offering side things have improved a lot, marketing and word of mouth could help raise awareness.

13
MrMagic
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Banjo- Those charts don't tell the full story. It probably wouldn't be the best selling game of September if any of its main competition released earlier in the month.
EA sports FC had only been out for 1 day and took 3rd place and Mortal Kombat for 11 days Vs 30 days of sales for Starfield.

14
themightyant
Fri 20th Oct 2023

So looking at several of the markets console sales for Sept were:

Up 44% in the UK YoY
Single digit increase in the USA YoY
Down 35% in Europe YoY

It's a mixed bag really. I honestly expected Starfield, their biggest release of the year, to have more impact on console sales.

15
HonestHick
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@MrMagic FC will outsell just about anything. One of the biggest releases of the year. The thing MS has to do is build on the momentum of Starfield and let people know what’s to come and what platforms those games will or won’t be on. The June showcase for both Sony and MS is a long long ways off. I would like to know more of the roadmap for both PS and Xbox.

16
HonestHick
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@themightyant Bethesda games are heavy on the PC player side. Not sure that trend will ever slow done. But it’s all money that goes back to MS and their development teams so it’s a win.

17
oopsiezz
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Sales jumped 136% but Sony's Playstation 5 still took the top spot? What does Xbox have to do to slow Playstation down?

18
themightyant
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@HonestHick It's true Bethesda games are big on PC but Console is almost certainly their biggest market. This is hard to prove as they don't release the data but we can look at it logically.

Fallout 4 sold around 1.2 million copies on Steam/PC Day 1 according to SteamSpy but Bethesda themselves announced they shipped 12 million units total on Day 1. Note: that is 'shipped' not 'sold', it's not an apples to apples comparison, but it gives an idea of scale

The Director of Elder Scrolls Online stated the split for their game was "pretty much divided 30 percent, give or take" between the three platforms PS4, Xbox and PC/Mac. So around two thirds console for that specific title, one third PC/Mac.

Skyrim first 2 days were reportedly 59% of units were sold on the X360, 27% on the PS3, and 14% on PC by VG Chartz, they are a bad source, estimating and extrapolating too much data, but we can use it as a rough guide.

None of that alone is conclusive but I think together suggest how large a market console sales are compared to PC sales even for BGS games. It's exceedingly rare for games to sell more on PC than console when launched simultaneously.

What PC does typically have is long-tail sales of these titles. Gamers who care less about playing day 1 and people (myself included who played on console) will often buy again later on PC for the mods.

19
Sakai
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@themightyant 2/3 of Starfield sales in the UK were on PC not console, as mentioned in the article.
Bethesda is a traditional PC developer, long before they released a console game, and that is where the bulk of their audience plays

20
themightyant
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Sakai That is SALES not players. Game Pass is far more prevalent on Console than PC.

No it's not where the bulk of their players play anymore, it used to be, but that changed when Skyrim became a global hit and propelled BGS into the console limelight. Similar to Mass Effect for Bioware it significantly changed their target market.

21
Sakai
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@themightyant my comment says sales. As we do not get game pass numbers or breakdown, its the only thing we have to go from that is reliable. And it sold way more on PC

22
themightyant
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Sakai That's fair. But we weren't talking about sales we were discussing which is the bigger market, sales figures alone aren't helpful when Game Pass skews things so much.

23
Sakai
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@themightyant its the only information we have available, so its the best we have, and it says that Starfield was way more popular on PC, and it was not even remotely close.

Now if we ever get granular game pass figures, maybe we could revisit it and come up with a different answer, but I am not sure why they would ever release those figures to the public. But i for one would find it very interesting

24
themightyant
Fri 20th Oct 2023

Sakai wrote:

It says that Starfield was way more popular on PC, and it was not even remotely close.

No that isn't what the data says. It says nothing about popularity, or market share, only SALES. But it doesn't factor in the millions of Game Pass subscribers in the UK, which could skew this massively. That's like calling an election race after only 20% of the vote is in and mostly just from left (or right) leaning areas.

It MAY be more popular on PC, but the data DOESN'T say that.

It MAY be that, as this was an Xbox console exclusive, console players were significantly down and PC players were proportionately up, that Starfield bucked the trend. But consoles have been the largest market for BGS games since Skyrim, at least in terms of players.

25
Sakai
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@themightyant I thought we had already established we don't have any accurate data for game pass?

Or can you provide the accurate data to show the breakdown of Starfield players on game pass and what device they play on and for how long?

The data we have does say that, but the data we don't have access to could change that

26
themightyant
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Sakai No. We don't have accurate data, as you know, because Microsoft give out almost nothing. We can only piece together the information we do have, mostly through leaks and loose lips. i.e.

The approximate Game Pass subscriber count is just over 30 million. A recent (Aug 2023) Linked In job profile stated it had reached over 30 million, but was quietly removed. In lieu of better data, i'm fairly confident on that number as a rough estimate.

Another Linked In job profile (Sept 2022) suggested there was around 15 million PC players were enjoying Game Pass. So it's a 50:50 split right? (actually 60:40 in favour of PC as his older subscriber total was 25 million)... Well no, that was assumed to include all Game Pass Ultimate users as well.

As for PC / Console split this is more anecdotal. We know it has reached relative saturation on Xbox and they were trying to push harder on PC (they said so in the leaked emails). But the splits i've seen touted by analysts are around 75:25 Console to PC.

27
Sakai
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@themightyant interesting thesis. Maybe one day we will get the relevant information to say for definite one way or the other. It's a shame sales data is the only accurate information we are given

28
themightyant
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Sakai We'll never get it! Microsoft is allergic to breaking things down for interested parties. Say what you like about Jim Ryan but I loved his investor briefings, always filled charts, hard data and golden nuggets of information.

Part of me felt the Xbox leak was effectively just levelling the knowledge field

Have a good weekend, enjoy whatever you play.

29
Sakai
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@themightyant Jim is a Newcastle fan, so I always had a soft spot for him, even if I didn't agree with every decision they made under his watch. The toon army stick together

You too mate

30
OldGamer999
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Titntin
As always you summed up my feelings on the whole subject perfectly.

31
Banjo-
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@GeeEssEff Thanks for the correction about the month and year. Still, it was only a little part of my comment, the only part that everyone replied to 😅. Seventh so far being released late in a year full of excellent games and being available on Game Pass is a great achievement, as you said.

32
y2jarmyofficial
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Sakai I'm sure this game broke 3 million sold on at launch due to people paying 100 to play this on early access. So that a solid start. Till more info is released the only concrete figure is about 3 million, it could be possible its in the 5,6 million mark by now. Now I also wonder if they factor xbox pc game purchases to xbox or pc sales? I got starfield on pc for the xbox app

33
y2jarmyofficial
Fri 20th Oct 2023

@Sakai think about this, I don't currently game on xbox this gen[broke lost all my cash on a gaming pc lol] and I play starfield on the xbox app on my pc. Am I being counted on the pc side or console? Or is it just steam players are counted as a separate pc audience?

34
CallMeDuraSouka
Sat 21st Oct 2023

I mean this was a HUGE reason I was so excited to snag a Series X when it 1st released, and it was worth it for Starfield alone for me. Was really bummed out with Halo and Redfall though, Halo SP was so cookie cutter average I didn't finish it. Redfall..............
I've loved my X though, PS5 has been ignored for a bit.
It's a great ecosystem, really is. Their marketing is borderline terrible

35
HonestHick
Sat 21st Oct 2023

@themightyant yeah i mean those numbers for sure tell a different story and thank you for providing those details. I have always thought of BGS titles to do really strong PC numbers. Which i mean they do of course but you provided great insight to the fact they do great numbers on consoles also. Diablo is my favorite gaming series and it sells insane on PC. But i know it does ok number wise on console these days also. I got D4 for Series X.