Research has shown that 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.
With a 60% increase in pre owned games searches on Google* and in response to the International Games Month, Theslotbuzz.com were intrigued to find out which game and console is the most popular among gamers in the second-hand market! To do this, they scraped recent sales of over 60 most popular games and 15 gaming consoles on a notable global resale e-commerce website, revealing the best-selling second hand game and gaming consoles in 2022!
Key findings:
- Minecraft is the most sought-after second hand game, with 5,700 used items sold online recently, highest among all games reviewed!
- The newly released shooting game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is ranked second with 5,500 used games sold online. GTA V placed third with 4,500 sales.
- With the successful launch of PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 is now the most popular gaming console in the second hand market with 13,000 used consoles sold recently.
- Nintendo DS ranked second most popular in the second hand market and Nintendo Switch came third.
Top 10 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 |
*Used/pre-owned/second hand sales only in the last 90 days
Minecraft is the most popular game in the second hand market with 5,700 used items sold in the last three months, the highest among all games reviewed! Known as the best-selling game of all time across multiple platforms, it is not surprising that Minecraft ranked first in the second hand market too. Pre-owned Minecraft PS4 editions are sold for £11 on average, a 50% lower price than a new official copy.
Following closely behind is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II with 5,500 used games recently sold in the second hand market. Only released a month ago, this first-person shooting game, sequel to the 2019 blockbuster Modern Warfare, has already become one of the most streamed games this month. The average listings for this second hand game were priced at £46, only 10% cheaper than buying a brand new one.
Grand Theft Auto V, widely known as GTA 5, ranks third with 4,500 used games sold recently online. Rockstar’s enduring game, firstly released in 2013, has grabbed the headlines again after releasing on PS5 and XBOX series earlier this year. The recent sold price for the used GTA V PS5 version was £18 on average, saving gamers over 27% more than buying a brand new one!
The full dataset for all 61 games reviewed can be found on the Onedrive here.
Top 5 most popular second hand gaming 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 |
With the successful launch of PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 is now the most popular gaming console in the second hand market with 13,000 used consoles sold online in the last 90 days.
Discontinued and retired from the market in 2020, it is not surprising to see the Nintendo DS being the second most sought-after in the second hand market, with 12,000 used consoles used recently. First released in 2004, it is also the second best selling console of all time with 154 million sales worldwide according to Statista.
Nintendo’s Switch gaming device ranked third with 11,000 used consoles sold globally. Released in 2017, this unique console enables people to enjoy gaming both at home and on the go.
Martin Betch, the co-founder of Hi-van, a company specialized in travel van life,and a huge gaming fan who loves traveling shared his reasons for choosing second hand gaming with Theslotbuzz.com:
“Although I am mostly traveling, I am also huge on gaming. 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
- Theslotbuzz.com was interested to find out which secondhand game and gaming console was the most sought-after.
- 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.
- 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.
- Listings were filtered to “like new”, “very good”, “good”, “acceptable”, “used” to ensure that only used or secondhand items are included in this study.
- 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.
- *A 60% increase in second hand games Google searches was seen during the past month (23rd October – 23rd November, 2022)
- The data were collected between the 15th November -21st November and is correct as of then.