FIFA 22 sees 77 percent digital sales in UK at launch

FIFA 22 was reportedly the best-selling game in the U.K. in September, while the PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console. After one week on the shelves, FIFA 22 launch sales are up 10 percent over FIFA 21, according to gamesindustry.biz.

The game’s digital sales saw a growth of 37 percent compared to what was achieved by last year’s edition, though the physical sales of FIFA 22 dropped 34 percent in comparison to last year’s game. Overall, in its first week of release, 77 percent of FIFA 22 sales in the U.K. were in the digital format.

The great success of the digital format was certainly boosted by the Ultimate Edition of the game, which allowed players to access it early and was only distributed in the digital version.

FIFA 21 marked the first time more copies of a game from the popular series were digitally downloaded instead of being physically purchased at launch, according to gamesindustry.biz. That feat combined with this year’s numbers indicates a trend of a majority of FIFA players leaning toward purchasing the game digitally.

This year, 3.36 million games were sold in the U.K. during September, which is a 25-percent increase from last September, according to gamesindustry.biz. The highlights in sales for the month were NBA 2K22, Tales of Arise, Diablo II: Resurrected, Insurgency: Sandstorm, Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, Deathloop, and Life Is Strange: True Colors.

Data from GfK Entertainment reveals that “almost 220,000 games consoles were sold in the UK for the four weeks ending October 2nd,” with the PS5 having its best sales month since February. Xbox Series consoles followed in second and the Nintendo Switch was in third.

It was also revealed that the Dualsense controller was the best-selling accessory in the U.K., with the Pulse 3D headset in third place on the list and the white Xbox controller in fourth.