Video Games sales in U.S. (retail & digital) - July 2016

July 2016 Overall

Lack of strong new titles for the month resulted with poor comparison with last July's Batman : Arkham Knight with consumers spending 14 percent less year-on-year on hardware, software and accessories, however the release of Monster Hunter : Generations and the price drop for the 2DS helped to bolster spending for 3DS and 2DS hardware by 44 percent.

NPD Group's U.S. Games Industry Sales - July 2016
4-week month ; Reporting Period 07/03/16 through 07/30/16

Hardware

Spending declined by 30 percent versus last July due to a 10 percent decline in unit sales and a 22 percent decline in the average price. Spending on portables increased by 23 percent, but this was offset by a 37 percent decline in spending for consoles. Total spending came to $141 million, a decline of $61 million compared to July 2015.

The combined spending for the 3DS and the 2DS increased by 44 percent to $28 million. Declines in the average price for the 2DS by 33 percent resulted with a five-fold increase in unit sales for the 2DS to 78K units. The 3DS also saw an increase in unit sales of 18 percent, making the combined 2DS and 3DS platforms the best-selling hardware for July 2016 (based on units).

The average price of the Xbox One fell by 30 percent compared to July'15 ; this helped the platform become the best-selling eighth-generation console (in terms of units sold) for the month.

After 33 months since the launches of the PS4 and the Xbox One, the combined cumulative hardware sales for these two consoles exceed the sales of their predecessors by 41 percent at the same point of their lifecycles.

Software

The best-selling new release for the month was Monster Hunter : Generations for the 3DS ; but that sold 52 percent fewer dollars than last July's new game, Rory Mcllory PGA Tour, which released for the PS4 and Xbox One. The lack of strong new releases for the month have resulted with a poorer comp year-on-year, and the top 10 games for July 2016 generated 21 percent fewer dollar sales than they did last year.

The popularity of the Pokémon Go app had a positive effect on sales for Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Pokémon Omega Ruby for the 3DS. Units sales for the two games increased by 79 percent compared to the previous month.

Accessories

[Effective July 2016, subscription cards to console services such as Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus and named full-game download cards are included in the Video Games Accessories media advisory data]

There were declines in spending among the top selling accessory types. Consumers spent less on gamepads, headphones/headsets and in interactive gaming toys versus last July. This resulted with the total spend on accessories declining by 4 percent to $98 million.

Although dedicated eighth-generation gamepad spending and headphones/headset spending increased by 22 percent and 23 percent, respectively, they were offset in declines in spending on older models such as dedicated seventh-generation gamepads and headphones/headsets.

July saw a 34 percentage point shift in dollar share away from Skylanders accessories and amiibos to Disney Infinity accessories and Lego Dimension accessories. Although total spend for interactive gaming toys declined by 3 percent decline compared to last year, consumers spent an additional 55 percent on Disney Infinity accessories and $3MM on Lego Dimensions, which launched in September 2015.

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