Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the No.1 new game of 2025 in Europe

Ahead of Gamescom, GSD shares the best-selling PC and console games of 2025 (so far) across Europe

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was Europe’s best-selling new game of 2025, beating competition from Split Fiction, Monster Hunter Wilds, Mario Kart World and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

In data shared with The Game Business ahead of Gamescom 2025, 71 million PC and console games have been sold across the major European markets so far this year (data up until July 28), which is a drop of 6% over the same period the year before.

This includes 52 million digital games (-3% year-on-year), and 19.7 million physical games (-9%).

The information comes from GSD, the official European charts company that tracks sales of PC and console games across the continent, including both digital and physical games. You can read more about GSD below.

In total, 74% of the PC and console market across Europe was digital, which is 2% up over the same period the year before.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows may have been the No,1 new game of the year, but it wasn’t the No.1 game. The actual best-selling European game of 2025 (so far) is EA Sports FC 25, which was released in 2024.

In the battle of the RPGs, Monster Hunter Wilds (No.7) beat out strong competition from Kingdome Come: Deliverance 2 (No.10), Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (No.11) and Elden Ring Nightreign (No.13). There is one RPG missing from the list in the form of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This is because the game’s publisher currently doesn’t share data with GSD.

The best-selling new IP this year is Split Fiction, which was published by EA and developed by Hazelight. The game impressively reached No.6 in the European chart. Hazelight’s previous game, It Takes Two, is also in the Top 20 at No.14.

Game spending robust due to consumers buying pricier games

Leading GSD analyst Sam Naji shared some additional analysis on PC and console game spending across Europe. He revealed that for the first 19 weeks of the year, game spending dropped just 2% over the year before to €1.33bn, while unit sales dropped 9%. This is due to an 8% increase in the average selling price of games (gamers spent on average €29 per game this year, vs €27 last year).

Naji delved deeper to reveal that for digital, spending actually increased by 8% (vs a 6% drop in unit sales). This is due to a 15% rise in the average selling price of digital games (going from €22 to €25 for the first 19 weeks of the year).

By contrast, physical game spending was down 16%, while physical unit sales dropped 17%. The price of physical games increased only slightly (up 2% from €39 to €40 on average).

The 2025 European Top 20 (PC and Console)

1. EA Sports FC 25 (EA)
2. Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft)
3. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
4. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
5. Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
6. Split Fiction (EA)
7. Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom)
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Activision Blizzard)
9. Mario Kart World (Nintendo)*
10. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Plaion)
11. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (Bethesda)
12. Star Wars Battlefront 2 (EA)
13. Elden Ring: Nightreign (Bandai Namco)
14. It Takes Two (EA)
15. Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar)
16. NBA 2K25 (2K Games)
17. F1 25 (EA)
18. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
19. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
20. Battlefield 1 (EA)

*Digital data unavailable

- Data until July 28, 2025
- Games bundled with hardware is included (including digital and physical games)
- Data covers Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom

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What is GSD?

GSD tracks PC and console game sales across Europe. It tracks digital sales across all European territories, and retail sales across most European markets (and all major markets). It also tracks game sales across other territories around the world, including Australia.

It even goes beyond games, tracking hardware, accessories and more across selected markets.

Is the data good?

From my point-of-view, it’s very good. The data is real. The physical game figures comes directly from retailers. And the digital download data comes directly from the publishers. This isn’t data based on consumer panels or market estimates.

However, although most major publishers share their data, smaller publishers are typically absent from this chart. Nintendo also doesn’t share its first-party digital data with GSD, either. As a result, sometimes a big game ends up missing from the chart. For this one, you’ll notice Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not in the Top 20, nor are Schedule 1, REPO or Peak (which were all successful indie games on Steam).

It sounds useful. Where can I find out more?

Just head through here.

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Thank you for reading! We’ll be here all week with interviews, reaction and analysis to Gamescom 2025. All of our Gamescom coverage is sponsored by Green Man Gaming and Keywords Studios.