Consumer spending on video games continued to decline in the United States in September, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. But fans still showed up for some of the big releases including the double-header of NBA 2K20 and Borderlands 3 from publisher Take-Two Interactive.
NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. But not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn't share its first-party sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.
Software:
These charts are sorted by dollar sales — not number of units sold.
- NBA 2K20
- Borderlands 3
- FIFA 20
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening*
- Madden NFL 20
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
- Gears 5^
- Code Vein
- NHL 20
- Mario Kart 8*
- Minecraft#
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy
- Red Dead Redemption II
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
- Plants vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville
- Marvel's Spider-Man
- Catherine
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
^Does not include Steam digital sales
#Only includes digital sales for PlayStation 4 and Xbox one
Unlike August, September had some major software releases. Take-Two released the aforementioned NBA 2K20 and Borderlands 3. But September also saw the debut of FIFA 20, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Gears 5, Code Vein, and NHL 20. Even Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, which launched October 4, is in NPD's September tracking window, which runs through October 5.
But even with all of those games, software sales were still down.
"Dollar sales of tracked video game software declined 4% in September versus a year ago, to $732 million," said Piscatella. "Growth in Switch and Xbox One software sales could not offset declines on PlayStation 4, which were driven by the comparable September 2018 release of Marvel's Spider-Man."
Compared to last year, software sales are still about par in 2019. But the money has shifted to Nintendo instead of Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
"Year-to-date dollar sales of tracked video game software are flat at $3.9 billion,' said Piscatella. "Gains in sales of Nintendo Switch software have been offset by declines across all other platforms."
NBA 2K20
2K Games's NBA 2K20 debuted in September, and it has already shot to the top of the sales charts.
"NBA 2K20 debuts as the best-selling game of September 2019, and instantly becomes the best-selling game of 2019 year-to-date," said Piscatella. "NBA 2K20 launch-month sales were the highest for any sports game in history, exceeding sales of the previous record holder, NBA 2K19."
Borderlands 3
Gearbox Software's Borderlands 3 also had an impressive debut.
"Borderlands 3 set a new franchise launch month sales record, debuting as the second best-selling game of September," said Piscatella. "Borderlands 3 currently ranks as the third best-selling game of the year."
Gears 5
Gears 5's debut at No. 7 may seem disappointing at first, but it's important to remember that it is part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription program. Anyone can get the game as part of that membership for just $10 per month — and Microsoft has had a number of promotions that charged much less than that.
The 10 best-selling games of 2019 so far
- NBA 2K20
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Borderlands 3
- Madden NFL 20
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Tom Clancy's The Division 2
- Anthem
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- Resident Evil 2 2019
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Red Dead Redemption II
- Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- NBA 2K20
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Borderlands 3
- Madden NFL 20
- NBA 2K19
- Battlefield V
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Borderlands 3
- NBA 2K20
- Gears 5
- FIFA 20
- Madden NFL 20
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
- NHL 20
- Plants vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- Grand Theft Auto V
- NBA 2K20
- Borderlands 3
- FIFA 20
- Madden NFL 20
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
- NHL 20
- Code Vein
- Marvel's Spider-Man
- Catherine
- Minecraft
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening*
- Mario Kart 8*
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
- Super Mario Maker 2*
- Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes Of An Elusive Age*
- Astral Chain*
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
- Super Mario Party*
- Pokemon: Ultra Sun*
- Pokemon: Ultra Moon*
- Super Mario Maker*
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D*
- Mario Kart 7*
- Super Mario 3D Land*
- Super Smash Bros.*
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D*
- Minecraft*
- Luigi's Mansion*
Hardware:
Nintendo Switch was again the best-selling hardware platform of September and remains the best-selling platform of 2019.
Of course, the Switch debuted in 2017, and it is still in the meaty part of its life cycle. Nintendo also released the Switch Lite on September 20, which gave a boost to the platform's sales. Earlier today, Nintendo said the Switch had more sold more than 15 million consoles.
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, meanwhile, both launched in November 2013. And Sony and Microsoft have both confirmed that they will launch their next-gen consoles for holiday 2020. As you might expect, this has driven down demand for their older devices.
Hardware spending in September 2019 fell 22 percent when compared to a year ago, to $240 million," said Piscatella. "Year-to-date hardware spending has declined 21 percent versus year ago, to $1.9 billion. Nintendo Switch is the only platform with sales gains both in September as well as year-to-date.
September 2019 tracked spending across video game hardware, software, accessories, and game cards totaled $1.278 billion, down 8 percent when compared to a year ago," NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. "Declines were experienced across all categories.
This is yet another month that is dragging down 2019's performance relative to 2018. And slowing hardware sales are the biggest reason for the drop.
"Year-to-date spending across tracked video game hardware, software, accessories, and game cards has fallen 6 percent when compared to 2018, to $8.3 billion," said Piscatella. "Declines in hardware spending have driven the decrease."
The accessory category also saw a decline in spending.
"Total September 2019 spending on accessories and game cards fell 7 percent when compared to a year ago, to $306 million," said Piscatella. "Year-to-date sales of accessories and game cards have fallen 2 percent when compared to a year ago, to $2.6 billion."
But at least Amiibo made a stunning return.
"Interactive-gaming-toy dollar sales jumped more than eight times when compared to September 2018," said Piscatella. "[That was] driven by growth of Smash Bros. Series 1 Amiibo and Link's Awakening Series 1 Amiibo."
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