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Best-selling games in the UK

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These are the best-selling video games in the United Kingdom.

Arcade games[]

Annual UK highest-grossing arcade games
Year Top arcade game Company Genre Unit sales (est.) Revenue (est.) Ref
1979 Space Invaders Taito Shmup 78,000 $700,000,000 [1]
1980 — $1,000,000,000 [2]
1981 — $300,000,000 [3]
1982 Pac-Man Namco Maze — $50,000,000 [4]
1984 Track & Field Konami Sports 1,000+ $54,000,000 [5]
1985 Commando Capcom Run & gun 15,000 $50,000,000 [6]
1986 Nemesis (Gradius) Konami Shmup 1,000+ $100,000,000 [7]
1987 Out Run Sega Racing 1,000 $100,000,000 [8]
1988 Operation Wolf Taito FPS — $62,000,000 [9]
1989 Strider Capcom Hack & slash — $80,000,000 [10]
1991 Street Fighter II Capcom Fighting 10,000 $229,000,000 [11]
1992 — $459,000,000

Home video games[]

Best-selling games[]

Annual UK best-selling home video games
Year Title Platform(s) Company Unit sales (est.) Ref
1982 Pac-Man Multi-platform Namco 290,000 [4]
1983 Donkey Kong Multi-platform Nintendo 283,000 [12]
1984 Jet Set Willy Computers Software Projects 500,000 [5]
1985 Hyper Sports Computers Konami 230,000 [6]
1986 Yie Ar Kung-Fu Computers Konami 200,000 [7]
1987 Out Run Computers Sega 350,000 [8]
1988 Ghostbusters Computers Mastertronic 300,000 [9]
1989 RoboCop Computers Data East 900,000 [10]
1990 Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Computers Konami 500,000 [13]
1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Mega Drive Sega 1,000,000+ [14]
1993 Mortal Kombat Consoles Acclaim 400,000+ [15]
1995 FIFA Soccer 96 Multi-platform Electronic Arts — [16]
1996 FIFA 97 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 236,460 [17]
1997 Tomb Raider II PS1, PC Eidos Interactive 255,518
1998 Gran Turismo PlayStation Sony 346,197
1999 FIFA 2000 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 384,684
2000 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Multi-platform Eidos Interactive 695,987
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Multi-platform Electronic Arts 697,629
2002 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City PlayStation 2 Rockstar 1,071,279
2003 FIFA 2004 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 878,065
2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PlayStation 2 Rockstar 1,745,245
2005 FIFA 06 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 1,086,358
2006 FIFA 07 Multi-platform Electronic Arts — [18]
2007 FIFA 08
2008 FIFA 09
2009 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Multi-platform Activision
2010 Call of Duty: Black Ops
2011 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Multi-platform Activision 2,814,609 [19]
2012 Call of Duty: Black Ops II Multi-platform Activision 2,672,364
2013 Grand Theft Auto V Multi-platform Rockstar 3,670,234
2014 FIFA 15 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,663,296 [20]
2015 FIFA 16 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,516,079 [21]
2016 FIFA 17 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,500,000 [22]
2017 FIFA 18 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,696,721 [23]
2018 FIFA 19 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 1,889,401 [24]
2019 FIFA 20 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 1,502,191 [25]
2020 FIFA 21 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,182,694 [26]
2021 FIFA 22 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,338,778 [27]
2022 FIFA 23 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,530,510 [28]
2023 EA Sports FC 24 Multi-platform Electronic Arts 2,390,000 [29]

Highest-grossing franchises[]

The following are the highest-grossing home video game franchises in the UK in terms of physical sales revenue between 1995 and April 2023. Games like LEGO Star Wars are counted under both LEGO and Star Wars.

Rank Franchise Revenue (£) Revenue (US$) From To Ref
1 FIFA £1,960,000,000 $2,400,000,000 1995 2023 [30]
2 Call of Duty £1,530,000,000 $1,900,000,000 2003
3 Mario £1,070,000,000 $1,300,000,000 1995
4 Grand Theft Auto £769,000,000 $1,000,000,000 1997
5 LEGO £506,000,000 $630,000,000 1997
6 Star Wars £492,000,000 $610,000,000 1995
7 Pokémon £486,000,000 $600,000,000 2000
8 The Sims £438,000,000 $540,000,000 1999
9 Assassin's Creed £409,000,000 $510,000,000 2007
10 Need for Speed £378,000,000 $470,000,000 1995
11 Sonic — 1995 2022 [31]
12 WWE
13 Marvel
14 Wii Fit — 2008
15 Tom Clancy — 1997
16 Guitar Hero — 2006
17 Pro Evolution Soccer — 2001
18 Skylanders — 2011
19 Battlefield — 2002
20 Tomb Raider — 1996
21 Halo — 2001
22 DC — 1995
23 Formula One
24 Gran Turismo — 1998
25 Forza — 2005
26 Harry Potter — 2001
27 Crash Bandicoot — 1996
28 Olympic Games — 1995
29 The Legend of Zelda
30 PGA Tour Golf

ELSPA Sales Awards[]

Main article: ELSPA Sales Awards

The ELSPA Sales Awards are sales milestones for games in the United Kingdom given by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association. They stopped supplying this data after the ELSPA became the UKIE in 2010. The following are titles that received the Diamond Award, meaning they sold over 1 million copies in the UK.

References[]

  1. ↑ 1979
  2. ↑ 1980
  3. ↑ 1981
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 1982
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 1984
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 1985
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 1986
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 1987
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 1988
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 1989
  11. ↑ "The making of Street Fighter 2 - a video game legend" (PDF). Mega. No. 10 (July 1993). 17 June 1993. pp. 14-35 (18-21).
  12. ↑ 1983
  13. ↑ 1990
  14. ↑ 1992
  15. ↑ "Top-Selling Video Game Titles In UK — 1993 (All Formats)". Screen Digest. Screen Digest Limited: 110. 1994. nb sales level at number 5 = 400,000 units, at number 9 = 250,000 units, at number 10 = 200,000 units
    Source: Gallup-ELSPA/Electronic Arts/CTW
  16. ↑ "Appendix B: Top 10 software" (PDF). Unlimited learning: Computer and video games in the learning landscape. European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA). 2006. p. 51. Retrieved 16 October 2021 – via International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
  17. ↑ The Top Selling UK Games Since 1996
  18. ↑ The sales units are based on retail tracking by GfK and digital downloads data from ISFE GSD.
  19. ↑ UK best selling games of 2013 with sales numbers
  20. ↑ https://venturebeat.com/games/fifa-15-call-of-duty-are-top-selling-games-in-u-k-for-2014/
  21. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/games-dominated-the-uks-entertainment-top-10-in-2015
  22. ↑ https://eraltd.org/news-events/press-releases/2017/entertainment-sales-reached-63bn-in-2016/
  23. ↑ https://eraltd.org/news-events/press-releases/2018/streaming-boom-helps-entertainment-outstrip-the-printed-word/
  24. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/uk-video-games-market-is-now-80-percent-digital
  25. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/uk-video-game-sales-drop-for-the-first-time-since-2012
  26. ↑ https://eraltd.org/news-events/press-releases/2021/lockdown-streaming-drives-entertainment-sales-to-9bn-and-fastest-growth-rate-since-records-began/
  27. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/far-cry-6-guardians-of-the-galaxy-and-ratchet-and-clank-sold-better-at-physical-retail-than-digital-in-the-uk-last-year
  28. ↑ https://twitter.com/Chris_Dring/status/1633054370433576960
  29. ↑ https://eraltd.org/news-events/press-releases/2024/uk-entertainment-sales-grow-7-to-119bn
  30. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/star-wars-is-the-sixth-biggest-video-game-franchise-in-uk-history-uk-time-tunnel
  31. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220329090348/https://www.gfk.com/en-gb/press/The-video-games-of-our-lives-UK
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