It looks like a lot of folks treated themselves to a Nintendo Switch for the holidays last month. The video game industry in December was up 10 percent year-over-year, generating $3.29 billion thanks mainly due to hardware sales, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group.
The Switch was the best seller last month, but since it came out in March, it couldnt’ beat out Sony’s PlayStation 4 as the best-selling console of 2017. But it has broken some records in terms of sales in its first 10 months.
“On a time-aligned basis through the first 10 months on the market, Nintendo Switch has sold more consoles than any other platform in history,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said.
And more good news for Nintendo: Monthly sales of the 3DS and 2DS handheld consoles were the highest they’ve been since December 2014.
Here are the numbers for December 2017:
- Total: $3.29 billion (up 10 percent from $3 billion in December 2016)
- Hardware: $1.27 billion (up 27 percent from $997 million)
- Console software: $1.24 billion (up 2 percent from $1.22 billion)
- PC software: $40 million (down 17 percent from $48 million)
- Accessories: $735 million (flat from $734 million)
The NPD report doesn’t cover total market spend, and it is missing certain data (such as digital sales from Blizzard’s store on its Battle.net service). It is more of a snapshot of the market as a whole, using data from participating publishers and platforms.
Software
Overall
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017*
- Super Mario Odyssey**
- NBA 2K18
- Mario Kart 8**
- Madden NFL 18
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds*
- Assassin’s Creed: Origins
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild**
- Grand Theft Auto V
- FIFA 18*
- Destiny 2*
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2
- Splatoon 2**
- Need for Speed: Payback*
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2**
- Just Dance 2018
- The Sims 4*
- Pokemon: Ultra Sun**
- Pokemon: Ultra Moon**
* No PC digital sales
** No digital sales
Software spending was up 1 percent from December 2016, reaching $1.3 billion. After Activision’s Call of Duty: WWII’s immense month in November, it’s unsurprisingly still at the No. 1 spot on the charts.
“Call of Duty: WWII was the best-selling game in December, as well as for the year,” said Piscatella. “December 2017 is the eighth consecutive December that a Call of Duty franchise release has topped the sales chart.”
Activision Blizzard was the highest earning publisher in 2017, though more folks spent their dollars on Nintendo games in December. This is probably thanks to an influx of new Switch owners looking to build out their library of games for that platform.
Xbox One
- Call of Duty: WWII
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017
- NBA 2K18
- Madden NFL 18
- Assassin’s Creed: Origins
- Grand Theft Auto V
- FIFA 18
- Destiny 2
- Forza Motorsport 7
PlayStation 4
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017
- NBA 2K18
- Madden NFL 18
- Assassin’s Creed: Origins
- Grand Theft Auto V
- FIFA 18
- Need for Speed: Payback
- Destiny 2
- Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo Switch**
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Mario Kart 8
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Splatoon 2
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
- Pokken Tournament DX
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- ARMS
- Just Dance 2018
Nintendo 3DS**
- Pokemon: Ultra Sun
- Pokemon: Ultra Moon
- Minecraft
- Mario Kart 7
- Mario Party: The Top 100
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions
- Super Smash Bros.
- Super Mario Maker
- Miitopia
- New Super Mario Bros. 2
The best-selling games of 2017
- Call of Duty: WWII
- NBA 2K18
- Destiny 2*
- Madden NFL 18
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild**
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017*
- Super Mario Odyssey**
- Mario Kart 8**
Hardware and accessories
Hardware generated $1.3 billion in December, up 27 percent year-over-year and driven mainly by the Switch. As previously mentioned, it became the best-selling console in its first 10 months. But Microsoft’s Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are also breaking records. More people own the two platforms than any of the companies’ previous iterations.
“Over the first 50 months in market for each console, the combined hardware installed base of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One now exceeds that of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by 18 percent, and that of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox by 4 percent,” said Piscatella.
Despite the growth in software and hardware, the accessories category remained largely unchanged year-over-year. It earned $735 million in December, with consumers shifting their focus from “toys-to-life” (such as Nintendo Amiibo) to cases and organizers.
Interactive gaming toys were down 66 percent, whereas cases were up 167 percent compared to December 2016. Gamepad spending was also up 10 percent, led by the PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller as in previous months.
The PC Gaming channel is presented by Intel®'s Game Dev program.
No comments:
Post a Comment