Some fresh gaming industry sales data from the first half of 2024 in Europe has been detailed by the folks over at GamesIndustry.biz, and it showcases a slow year across the board despite some wins here and there - particularly for software.
Those wins start with the fact that unit game sales in the region are actually only down by about 1.6% compared to the first half of 2023. However, many of those sales aren't for full-priced AAA games, so the actual sales revenue is expected to be a chunk lower than last year so far.
When looking at hardware, the story isn't quite as rosy. All three major platform holders see losses when stacked up against the first half of 2023 - Sony's PS5 is down 16%, Nintendo Switch is down 32%, and Xbox Series X|S is down 37% compared to last year.
Again, this slump in sales is likely in part because we just haven't had as many big releases so far this year - you know, the kind of games that get talked about lots and push newcomers into buying console hardware. As is typically the case, the AAA release slate should pick up in the latter half of this year, while 2023 was an unusually strong year across the entire calendar.