Video Games sales in U.S. (retail & digital) - July 2017
Analysis from NPD's VG industry analyst, Mat Piscatella
Total video game spending in July 2017, which includes hardware, software and accessories, grew 19 percent versus year ago to $588m. Growth was seen across all categories of spending. The launch of Splatoon 2 on the Nintendo Switch, and month 2 sales of Crash Bandicoot : N. Sane Trilogy drove software gains, while new supply of Nintendo Switch and continued strength of PlayStation 4 pushed hardware higher.
NPD Group's U.S. Games Industry Sales - July 2017
4-week month ; Reporting Period 07/02/17 through 07/29/17
| Dollar Sales | Jul'16 | Jul'17 | Chg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Video Game Sales | $496M | $588M | 19% |
| Video Games Hardware | $142M | $182M | 29% |
| *Video Games Software (Console+Portable ; Physical and Full Game Digital Formats from the PSN, and Xbox Live platforms) | $224M | $263M | 17% |
| *PC Games Software (PC ; Physical and Full Game Digital Formats from the Steam platform) | $12M | $14M | 14% |
| **Video Games Accessories | $118M | $129M | 9% |
Software
Dollar sales of video game software and PC games software combined to reach $277 million in July 2017, up 17 percent versus year ago. Year to date, dollar sales are up less than 1 percent compared to year ago at $2.7 billion.
Nintendo's Splatoon 2 was the best-selling title of the month. Three of the month's top seven best-selling games are published by Nintendo. Nintendo was also the best-selling software publisher in July.
Crash Bandicoot : N. Sane Trilogy was the second best-selling game of the month, gaining two ranking slots when compared to its June launch month ranking at number four.
Role Playing Games are experiencing a market resurgence. Driven by titles such as (in alphabetical order) Horizon : Zero Dawn, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, Mass Effect : Andromeda, Nier : Automata, Nioh and Persona 5, year-to-date dollar sales of RPGs has grown more than 50 percent when compared to the same period a year ago.
Three games from the Call of Duty franchise reached the top 20 in July, with Call of Duty : Modern Warfare Remastered joining June carryovers Call of Duty : Black Ops III, and Call of Duty : Infinite Warfare. Over the 12-month period ending July 2017, Call of Duty is the market's best-selling video game franchise and Call of Duty : Infinite Warfare the best-selling game.
Year to date, Tom Clancy is the best-selling game franchise in the U.S., Tom Clancy Ghost Recon : Wildlands the best-selling game, and Ubisoft the top-selling publisher.
July 2017 Top 20 Games (Physical and Full Game Digital Formats for publishers in the digital panel ; across all platforms incl. PC), ranked on dollar sales
| Title | Rank | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Splatoon 2*** | 1 | Nintendo |
| Crash Bandicoot : N. Sane Trilogy | 2 | Activision Blizzard |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 3 | Take 2 Interactive |
| Final Fantasy XII : The Zodiac Age | 4 | Square Enix Inc |
| The Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild*** | 5 | Nintendo |
| Injustice 2 | 6 | Warner Bros. Interactive |
| Mario Kart 8*** | 7 | Nintendo |
| Overwatch^ | 8 | Activision Blizzard |
| Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six : Siege | 9 | Ubisoft |
| NBA 2K17 | 10 | Take 2 Interactive |
| Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon : Wildlands | 11 | Ubisoft |
| Call of Duty : Modern Warfare Remastered | 12 | Activision Blizzard |
| Call of Duty : Black Ops III | 13 | Activision Blizzard |
| Minecraft | 14 | Microsoft |
| Call of Duty : Infinite Warfare | 15 | Activision Blizzard |
| MLB 17 : The Show | 16 | Sony |
| Arms*** | 17 | Nintendo |
| Battlefield 1 | 18 | Electronic Arts |
| Mass Effect : Andromeda | 19 | Electronic Arts |
| Tekken 7 | 20 | Bandai Namco Games |
Hardware
Hardware spending in July 2017 grew 29 percent compared to July 2016, to $182 million. Sales of the Nintendo Switch and growth of Sony's PlayStation 4 accounted for most of the increase.
The Nintendo Switch was July's best-selling hardware platform, driven by new inventory released in support of the launch of Splatoon 2.
Year to date, hardware spending has grown 20 percent versus 2016 to $1.6 billion. Performance of the Nintendo Switch continues to be the primary cause of the year-on-year gains.
Sony's PlayStation 4 is the best-selling hardware platform year to date.
Accessories
Total spend on Accessories and Gamecards** grew 9 percent compared to a year ago, to $129 million.
Accessories for the Nintendo Switch and Microsoft's Xbox One drove spending growth. Gamepads were the top-selling accessory types for both platforms.
Declines in the Interactive Gaming Toys (IGT) segment lessened in July. The IGT segment was down only 15 percent in dollar sales compared to July 2016. Year to date, dollar spending on IGT was down 39 percent versus year ago, while in the 12-month period ending July, dollar sales of IGT accessories fell by 48 percent.