Annual 2015 and December 2015 U.S. VG Retail/E-tail Sales

2015 video game sales across physical software, hardware, and accessories were flat compared to 2014. Including physical PC games, overall physical sales decreased less than 1 percent. Accessory spending, which rose by 12 percent from 2014, helped offset single digit declines in hardware and software spending.

For December 2015, there was a 1.5 percent decrease on sales across physical software, hardware, and accessories as trends mirrored the year with single-digit declines in hardware and software, which were offset by a 10 percent growth in accessories.

NPD Group's U.S. Games Industry Sales (New Physical Sales Channel*) - December 2015
5-week month; Reporting Period 11/29/15 through 1/2/16

Hardware

After 26 months of sales, the combined cumulative sales of Xbox One and PS4 exceeds the 26 month total of the PS3 and Xbox 360 by 47 percent. The lead from the prior generation has expanded due to the strong PS4 and Xbox One 2015 holiday, going from 38 percent by the end of October, growing to 47 percent by the end of November, and maintaining 47 percent higher sales by the end of December.

Annually, hardware sales decreased 4 percent with console and portable sales both decreasing by 4 percent. Within consoles, eighth generation console hardware grew by 2 percent over 2014 while there was a sharp 60 percent drop in 7th generation sales, which led to a net decline of $198MM.

For December 2015, the 6 percent decrease in sales versus December 2014 was driven by a 71 percent drop in seventh generation hardware and the 32 percent decrease in portable hardware despite the 4 percent increase in eighth generation spending.

As an indication of the strength of the new consoles, December 2015 marked the best month to date of PS4 unit sales as well as the Xbox One. With growth over 2014 for both these consoles, 2015 was the best year for PS4 and Xbox One hardware unit sales.

December 2015 was also the best month ever for total hardware unit sales for 8th generation consoles (Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U), beating the record set last month.

New Physical Software

While overall December 2015 new physical video game software sales decreased by 3 percent from last December, this was due to a 40 percent decrease in portable software sales as console software decreased a modest 1 percent. Further, the sales by generation show the health of eighth generation software, which increased by 48 percent over last December, as seventh generation console software dropped by 54 percent.

For 2015, while overall new physical software dropped by 2 percent, console software increased by 2 percent. Portable software was down 34 percent, with eighth generation software increasing by 52 percent; this offset the decrease of seventh generation by 53 percent, and led to a net increase of $73MM in physical software sales.

December 2015 was the best month on record for PS4 and Xbox One, and the second-best for the Wii U in terms of new physical software unit sales. This also meant that it was the best month of total eighth generation new physical software sales. 2015 was also the best year so far for total eighth generation new physical software sales.

New launches trended well for Dec, up 111 percent due to the launches of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, and Just Cause. However, November launch performance in December trended poorly, down 25 percent from last year.

Call of Duty had a healthy holiday season with growth from Call of Duty: Black Ops III relative to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Likely due to the release of the highly-anticipated Star Wars: Force Awakens, there was positive growth of Star Wars: Battlefront in its second month of sales, leading it to rank second for December 2015 sales.

Grand Theft Auto V had a remarkable year, making the top ten annually and for December despite its age. GTA V game made the top ten last year with the eighth generation launches as well as in 2013 with the initial seventh generation launch.

When looking at two months of sales performance of video game new physical software, Fallout 4 was the second highest Bethesda release ever after The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which released much later in the seventh generation to a larger install base. To date, Fallout 4 is the highest-selling role playing game for the PS4 and Xbox One.

Accessories

Accessory growth of 12 percent in 2015 was driven by Interactive Gaming Toys, Point Cards, Gamepads and Headsets/Headphones, which collectively increased sales by $351MM over 2014.

Interactive Gaming Toys were the leading accessory in 2015 with a sales growth of 13 percent over 2014.

For Gamepads, spending on eighth generation gamepads increased 44 percent over 2014, making up 76 percent of the market.

For headsets spending, growth was also driven by eighth generation consoles, which increased by 77 percent from 2014. Turtle Beach was the leading manufacturer of headsets for 2015.