You know things are getting bad when sales for these two slip (Activision/EA)Video game hardware sales in the UK dropped significantly in 2024, as EA Sports FC 25 and Call Of Duty both see a decline.While there were plenty of great games in 2024, its hard to argue that it wasnt a year the industry at large would rather forget.The lack of major titles, coupled with aging hardware, led to a drop in console and software sales around the world. When you add in widespread layoffs and several high-profile failures, like Concord and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, 2024 was a tumultuous time, saved only by unexpected successes like Helldivers 2.A report from the Entertainment Retail Association provides a better look at the overall picture for 2024, from a UK perspective, and while it lines up with these downward trends, theres an increase in one particular area.According to data in the associations newly published annual yearbook, software revenue across digital and physical dropped by 4.4% year-over-year, to 4.61 billion. This was mostly driven by a huge 34.5% drop in physical sales to 322 million, while digital sales were down 1% but took up the lions share with 4.29 billion.For the bigger picture on hardware, sales were down 25.3% in 2024 compared to the previous year, with just under 2 million games consoles sold overall. This was led by the PlayStation 5 with around one million sales (down 21.1%), while the Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch both sold around 500,000 units each, down 29.1% and and 27.6% respectively.None of this is particularly surprising (remember that the UK is the Xboxs biggest market outside the US and traditionally Nintendos smallest) but in contrast to the rapidly falling hardware numbers there is growth when it comes to console subscription services like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass.According to the data, console subscriptions grew by 12% in 2024 to 560 million. This is reflected in the mobile/tablet subscription space too, with subscriptions up by 13% to 85.6 million in value. Xbox is pushing for Game Pass over its own consoles (Microsoft)As for the most popular subscriptions, PlayStation Plus is leading the charge with 53.6%, with Xbox Game Pass in second at 33.6%. Steam and Amazon are listed as having 23.2% and 16.8% of digital subscribers respectively, while Nintendo Switch Online has 13.6%.This is surprising, as generally video game subscriptions are understood to have stalled worldwide, with little or no growth. However, these figures are based on revenue, not number of subscribers, and may simply reflect the fact that both Microsoft and Sony have raised their prices recently. The other key takeaway is that, while most areas were down, mobile gaming revenue saw an increase of 2.6% year-over-year to 1.58 billion. This was mostly driven by a 2.1% increase in spending across mobile microtransactions and DLC to 1.5 billion, but full game sales were also up 3.1% to 46.2 million year-over-year. Should Call Of Duty: Warzone is also in trouble at the moment (Activision)Overall, the smartphone is the most popular device to play games on, at 36.2%, ahead of video game consoles (24.9%), PCs (18.8%), handheld game consoles (8.7%), and tablets (6.6%).As for what games sold the most, unsurprisingly EA Sports FC 25 came out on top in combined physical and digital sales, followed by Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Hogwarts Legacy.More TrendingHowever, sales of the games were down compared to the previous entries. EA Sports FC 25 was down to 2.1 million sales, compared to 2.4 million for EA Sports FC 24 in the same period during 2023, while Black Ops 6 sold 1.2 million copies, which is 76,000 fewer than Modern Warfare 3 in 2023.It had already been reported that, on a worldwide basis, sales were down for EA Sports FC 25, but the decline for Call Of Duty is surprising. Modern Warfare 3 was widely criticised for its sub-par quality and yet Black Ops 6 has been much more warmly received and is overall the fast-selling entry in the series.To add to the gloom, only nine games in the top 20 actually came out in 2024, and one of those was The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered.While 2024 was overall a bit of a downer, there is hope 2025 will see things pick up once again thanks to the much anticipated launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 and GTA 6.Top 20 best selling games in the UK in 2024 (digital and physical)EA Sports FC 25Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6Hogwarts LegacyEA Sports FC 24Grand Theft Auto 5Helldivers 2Red Dead Redemption 2Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2Tom Clancys Rainbow Six SiegeElden RingFallout 4Mario Kart 8 DeluxeWWE 2k24Astro BotThe Last Of Us Part 2 RemasteredGrand Theft Auto OnlineUndisputedSuper Mario Bros. 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