Video Games sales in U.S. (retail & digital) - August 2017
Analysis from NPD's VG industry analyst, Mat Piscatella
Total video game spending in August 2017, which includes hardware, software and accessories, fell 2 percent versus year ago to $568 million. Growth in Accessories spending was offset by declines in both Hardware and Software spending.
| Dollar Sales | Aug'16 | Aug'17 | Chg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Video Game Sales | $578M | $568M | -2% |
| Video Games Hardware | $179M | $168M | -6% |
| *Video Games Software (Console and Portable ; Physical and Full Game Digital Formats from PlayStation and Xbox platforms) | $276M | $271M | -2% |
| *PC Games Software (PC ; Physical and Full Game Digital Formats from the Steam platform) | $15M | $11M | -23% |
| **Video Games Accessories | $108M | $118M | 10% |
Software
Dollar sales of video game software and PC games software combined to reach $282 million in August 2017, down 3 percent versus year ago. Year to date, dollar sales are down less than 1 percent compared to year ago at $2.9 billion.
Grand Theft Auto V has now been on the market 49 months and has achieved 41 Top 10 chart appearances, 16 more times than any other single title in reported history. In addition, Grand Theft Auto V is the all-time best-selling game by both revenue and units in tracked sales across PC, console and portable with digital and packaged combined.
Madden NFL 18 from Electronic Arts was the best-selling title of the month. Electronic Arts was also the best-selling software publisher during August.
Uncharted : The Lost Legacy entered the chart as the third best-selling game of the month. This position includes only sales of the standalone software, not sales of Uncharted : The Lost Legacy that were included as part of the Uncharted 4 Digital Deluxe Edition, or as part of the Uncharted 4 Explorer's Pack.
Consumer sales of games in the racing genre have grown more than 80 percent in 2017 year to date, driven primarily by the launches of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch and Forza Horizon 3 for the Xbox One.
The Shooter genre has experienced a 30 percent sales decline in 2017 year to date, but this is coming off a record high in spending for the genre over the same period a year ago. Despite the decline, 2017 year-to-date consumer sales for the Shooter genre are the third highest of all-time, trailing only the year to date periods in 2013 and 2016.
August 2017 Top 20 Games (Physical and Full Game Digital for publishers in the Digital Leader Panel) ranked on dollar sales
| Title | Rank | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Madden NFL 18 | 1 | Electronic Arts |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 2 | Take 2 Interactive (Corp) |
| Uncharted : The Lost Legacy | 3 | Sony (Corp) |
| Splatoon 2*** | 4 | Nintendo |
| The Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild*** | 5 | Nintendo |
| Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six : Siege | 6 | Ubisoft |
| Mario Kart 8*** | 7 | Nintendo |
| Call of Duty : Modern Warfare Remastered | 8 | Activision Blizzard (Corp) |
| Crash Bandicoot : N. Sane Trilogy | 9 | Activision Blizzard (Corp) |
| Overwatch^ | 10 | Activision Blizzard (Corp) |
| Injustice 2 | 11 | Warner Bros. Interactive |
| Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon : Wildlands | 12 | Ubisoft |
| Minecraft | 13 | Microsoft (Corp) |
| For Honor | 14 | Ubisoft |
| Call of Duty : Black Ops III | 15 | Activision Blizzard (Corp) |
| Agents Of Mayhem | 16 | Deep Silver |
| Forza Horizon 3 | 17 | Microsoft (Corp) |
| Battlefield 1 | 18 | Electronic Arts |
| NBA 2K17 | 19 | Take 2 Interactive (Corp) |
| UFC 2 | 20 | Electronic Arts |
Hardware
Hardware spending in August 2017 fell 6 percent versus year ago to $168 million. Spending growth generated by the Nintendo Switch was offset by declines in Xbox One and Legacy platform spending.
The Nintendo Switch was August's best-selling hardware platform. The Nintendo Switch has been the best-selling platform in four of the six months since launching in March 2017. Sony's PlayStation 4 was the best-selling platform in both May and June.
Year to date, hardware spending has grown 17 percent versus 2016 to $1.7 billion. Consumer spending on Nintendo Switch and Plug N Play devices such as the NES Classic are providing growth.
Sony's PlayStation 4 continues to be the best-selling hardware platform year to date.
Accessories
Total spend on Accessories and Gamecards** grew 10 percent compared to a year ago, to $118 million.
The Xbox One S White Wireless Controller was the best-selling accessory of the month, while the Switch Pro Controller is the best-selling accessory year to date.
Sony was the leading manufacturer in consumer sales of accessories both in August as well as year to date.
In the Headsets/Headphones segment, Turtle Beach is the best-selling manufacturer both in August as well as year to date.