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On the JJ Barnes blog, I check out research that shows 62% of gamers in the UK are turning their habit of buying new games to hunting second hand games due to tighter budgets for gaming amid the cost of living crisis.
Life is busy and hard, and games are a lot of fun, but with the cost of living crisis stealing away our budgets it can be really hard to find affordable entertainment. With multiple children who all want to play different games, this is increasingle true!
Theslotbuzz.com was intrigued to discover which game and console are the most popular among gamers in the second-hand market with International Games Month seeing a 60% increase in pre-owned game searches on Google*. They did this by scraping recent sales of 15 gaming consoles and 60 of the most popular games on a well-known global resale e-commerce website. This revealed the best-selling used games and gaming consoles in 2022!
*Used/pre-owned/second hand sales only in the last 90 days
Most Popular Second Hand Games
| Ranking | Game | Number of items sold (second hand only)* |
| 1 | Minecraft | 5,700 |
| 2 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | 5,500 |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto V | 4,500 |
| 4 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | 3,300 |
| 5 | Red Dead Redemption II | 2,600 |
| 6 | FIFA 22 | 2,500 |
| 7 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild | 2,400 |
| 8 | Luigi’s Mansion 3 | 2,000 |
| 9 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons | 1,900 |
| 10 | God of War | 1,800 |
Minecraft
With 5,700 used items sold in the last three months, the most of any game reviewed, Minecraft is the most popular game on the used market. It should not come as a surprise that Minecraft ranked first in the second-hand market as well, given that it is the game that has sold the most copies across all platforms. On average, pre-owned Minecraft PS4 editions cost £11, which is 50% less than the cost of a brand-new official copy.
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II
Call of Duty comes in a close second: 5,500 used games of Modern Warfare II were recently sold on the second-hand market. This first-person shooter, a sequel to the smash hit Modern Warfare from 2019, has only been out for a month, but it already ranks among the most streamed games this month. This used game sold for £46 on average, which is only 10% less than buying a brand-new one.
GTA 5
With 4,500 used games recently sold online, Grand Theft Auto V, also known as GTA 5, comes in third place. After debuting earlier this year on the PS5 and Xbox One platforms, Rockstar’s enduring game has once more made headlines. Gamers can save more than 27% compared to purchasing a brand-new GTA V PS5 at an average selling price of £18.
Most Popular Second Hand Consoles
| Ranking | Console | Number of items sold (used only)* |
| 1 | PlayStation 4 | 13,000 |
| 2 | Nintendo DS | 12,000 |
| 3 | Nintendo switch | 11,000 |
| 4 | Xbox one | 9,100 |
| 5 | Nintendo Gameboy | 8,400 |
PlayStation 4
With 13,000 used PlayStation 4 consoles sold online in the last 90 days, PlayStation 4 is now the most popular gaming console in the second-hand market thanks to its successful launch.
Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS, which will be discontinued and taken off the market in 2020, is not surprising to be the second most sought-after console in the used market, with 12,000 used consoles recently used. According to Statista, it was first released in 2004 and is currently the second most popular console worldwide, with 154 million sales.
Nintendo Switch
With 11,000 used consoles sold worldwide, Nintendo’s Switch gaming device ranked third. This one-of-a-kind console, which came out in 2017, lets people play games at home and on the go.
Second Hand Gaming
“Although I am mostly traveling, I am also huge on gaming.” said Martin Betch, the co-founder of Hi-van, a company specialized in travel van life,and a huge gaming fan who loves traveling, sharing his reasons for choosing second hand gaming with Theslotbuzz.com. “I carry my Nintendo Switch and my Xbox One everywhere I go! Second-hand games and consoles are becoming increasingly popular as people try to save money during the cost of living crisis. As a traveler, I try to be frugal with my costs but it’s really hard to be. Petrol’s price has more than doubled since a year ago, most consumer goods have become more expensive and restaurants have become very expensive. We cannot afford to buy AAA video games anymore. The new Modern Warfare 2 costs 69.99$!
Of course, I am not going to spend 70 bucks on a game even though I love the series. That’s why I turn to buying games second-hand. Many people accidentally buy extra codes for their games when they get them new and sell them on eBay for cheap. But not always, so I just wait for the sales to come by.”
Methodology
1. Theslotbuzz.com was interested to find out which secondhand game and gaming console was the most sought-after.
2. To do this, they first collated a seed list of 61 most popular games right now in 2022 after referencing many reputable sites such as Ranker, npd, gaminggorilla, etc. Free games such as Fall Guys, Fortnite, PUBG, Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, League of Legends, Valorant are excluded in the research. They also collected a seed list of 15 most popular gaming consoles.
3. They then put each game name into a global notable P2P e-commerce website and noted down the number of sales within the last 90 days worldwide.
4. Listings were filtered to “like new”, “very good”, “good”, “acceptable”, “used” to ensure that only used or secondhand items are included in this study.
5. Listings were filtered to “video games” or “video game consoles” only so that only game/console sales were counted, excluding other merchandise with the same name.
6. *A 60% increase in second hand games Google searches was seen during the past month (23rd October – 23rd November, 2022)
7.The data were collected between the 15th November -21st November and is correct as of then.
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