V Rising climbs to the top of UK's May charts | UK Monthly Rankings

The vampire-themed survival game V Rising exited Early Access and climbed to the top of the UK charts in May.

The game's release on PC was met with favorable reviews, and a PlayStation 5 version is scheduled for June 11.

Overall, May saw a decline in game sales, with 1.85 million units sold—a 21% drop compared to May 2023. The previous year's market performance was bolstered by the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the debut of Hogwarts Legacy on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Fallout 4, the chart-topper from last month, maintained its position in the top five, securing the No.4 spot. The game's resurgence in April was due to the Amazon Prime TV series adaptation and significant price reductions.

Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut saw a climb in rankings with its release on PC, settling at No.6. It's PlayStation Studios' second largest PC launch, surpassed only by Helldivers 2, and narrowly outsold 2022's Spider-Man: Remastered after two weeks.

The remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for Nintendo Switch also made it into the Top Ten, despite lacking digital sales data. Its physical sales outperformed those of Super Mario RPG (2023) and Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020).

Console Market Faces Continued Decline

In May, less than 65,000 game consoles were sold in the UK, a 10% month-on-month decrease and nearly 33% below the figures from May last year (GfK panel data). The PlayStation 5 retained its position as the top-selling console but saw a 13% decline in sales from April.

Nintendo Switch sales were notably down, explained by the previous year's strong performance linked to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The Switch experienced a 9% month-on-month sales drop.

The Xbox Series S and X ranked third, with a 9% decline in sales from the previous month.

Accessory sales in the UK during May totaled 475,429 units, a 12.6% drop from April but a 5% increase over the same month last year. Dominating the accessories market were the White and Midnight Black PS5 DualSense controllers, while the PlayStation Portal Remote Player jumped back to No.3 in the rankings.

Despite the downturn in game and console sales, accessory sales have risen by 21% year-to-date in the UK.

"PC gaming accessories—comprising mice, keyboards, and headsets—have climbed 8%, while console gaming accessories have surged by 26%," noted GfK games executive Dorian Bloch.

"Growth in console accessories is driven mainly by a 22% rise in controller sales, particularly PS5 controllers such as DualSense, DualSense Edge, and PlayStation Portal. Xbox controller sales have also seen a slight uptick."

"Console gaming headsets are up 17%, thanks to PlayStation headsets and Sony's Pulse 3D range, particularly the recent Pulse 3D Elite. SteelSeries’ Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headset, retailing at around £300, remains a top seller among the PlayStation accessories," Bloch added.

UK GSD May 2024 Top 10 (Digital and Physical)

*Digital data unavailable

GSD digital data comprises sales from participating companies through PC digital stores, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Eshop. Major participants include Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, CD Projekt, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group, Focus Entertainment, Kepler, Konami, Marvellous Games, Microids, Microsoft, Milestone, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Quantic Dream, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Tencent, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Notable absentees include Nintendo and 505 Games, alongside smaller developers.