While a number of industries have gone into decline in 2020 due to the global pandemic, gaming has taken off, as people largely stuck at home look for ways to occupy themselves. New data from NPD looking at the July to September period shows record spending on games, the highest ever in US history.
Spending on games, hardware, consoles, and all their various accessories reached $11.2 billion in the quarter, an increase of 24% on the same period last year. $10.4 billion of that was on software and content alone, with mobile spending and subscriptions seeing a particularly notable increase.
In terms of the content that drove this record-breaking quarter, surprise indie hit Among Us sits comfortably among a number of larger AAA releases including NBA 2K21, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, and Ghost of Tsushima, as well as older favorites including Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Fortnite, and Minecraft. Despite performing worse than expected for Square Enix, Marvel’s Avengers still got a look in the list too.
“We can anticipate another record-breaking quarter in Q4,” said analyst said Mat Piscatella. “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.”
The next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles have already been incredibly popular, selling out almost as soon as they became available. Despite having been in the market for over three years the Nintendo Switch is also continuing to sell well, with October seeing a huge month of sales for the hybrid console.
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