When it comes to boxed video games, the big legacy franchises continued to reign supreme in 2020, according to a new industry report that crowned FIFA 21 European Champion.
GfK Entertainment (via GamesIndustry.biz) reckons the EA Sports football sim was the best selling physical title across 16 of the 19 European countries probed in its report. It’s the fourth year in a row the franchise has claimed the honour, despite some rather modest updates in recent times.
Our reviewer wrote: “FIFA 21 is an often great football game packed with content and modes. The few gameplay tweaks that are here make for a better overall experience and keeping Volta around adds some variety.”
Overall, it’s no surprise to see Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which places highly in our best Switch games roundup, take the second spot overall. The RPG arrived in March 2020 and was excellent lockdown fodder for millions of gamers around the continent.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was a three-year-old game that came in third, with Mario Kart 8 Ultimate claiming the bronze. Perhaps this has something to do with the game coming bundled with new Switch consoles? The game also finished in the top three in seven of the 19 countries.
Other legacy games like Minecraft also continued to do well. In fact, the only other 2020 release mentioned within the report is The Last Of Us 2.
The report is quite illuminating and gives us some insight into the type of games that are still attracting purchases of boxed games, as opposed to digital sales. Perhaps it’s an older generation of gamers receiving FIFA in their Christmas stockings every year, while the major titles generating all the excitement are generally pre-ordered so they can be played digitally as soon as they become available?
Do you continue to buy physical games? Share your reasoning with us @trustedreviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
