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U.S. video gaming sales shatter records
Consumer spending on video gaming in the U.S. continued to break records, reaching $11.2 billion in the third quarter of 2020, according to the Q3 2020 Games Market Dynamics: U.S. report from The NPD Group. The figure represents an increase of 24% compared to the same period last year.
Gains were seen across new physical software, digital console and PC content, mobile and subscription spending, and hardware and accessories categories.
Among the best-performing games of the third quarter were Among Us, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Fortnite, Ghost of Tsushima, Madden NFL 21, Marvel’s Avengers, Minecraft, NBA 2K21, Paper Mario: The Origami King, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.
Sales of video game content reached $10.04 billion in the third quarter, up 24% compared to a year ago. Gains were seen across new physical software, digital console and PC content, mobile and subscription spending, and hardware and accessories categories. The most significant gains were in mobile and subscription spending, full-game downloads for consoles and portables, and video game accessories. Hardware and accessories experienced double-digit percentage gains, increasing 16% and 35%, respectively.
“We continue to see more video game players, playing for more hours, across more devices,” says Mat Piscatella, games industry analyst at The NPD Group. “We can anticipate another record-breaking quarter in Q4, in large part due to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles entering the market with one of the fastest-selling consoles in U.S. history, the Nintendo Switch.”
Methodology: Games Market Dynamics: U.S. provides a comprehensive measure of the consumer spend on video games in the U.S. including purchases of video games hardware, software, and accessories as well as on PC games. Released on a quarterly basis, it provides insight into new and used physical retail sales, game rentals, full-game digital downloads, downloadable content, subscriptions, and mobile gaming. This assessment of the broad consumer spend on the industry uses NPD’s monthly POS tracking services as well as consumer data from other NPD trackers, monitors, and reports.
