U.S. video game spending fell 5% year-over-year in October, says Circana
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CIRCANA OCTOBER DATA:
Last week, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories in October fell 5% vs last year to $4B. Declines were experienced across all categories of spend. The dip was partially driven by Call of Duty shifting release months. Year-to-date U.S. consumer spending across video game products remained 2% higher than a year ago, at $43.4B. Spending on video game content in October fell 4% when compared to a year ago, to $3.6B. Growth in physical console software and mobile spending was offset by declines in other areas, particularly digital premium downloads driven by the release date shift of Activision’s (MSFT) “Call of Duty.”
Piscatella noted that Sony’s (SONY) “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” was the best-selling game of October in the U.S., instantly becoming the 4th best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date. “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2″ also led all titles in physical software dollar sales during October. Launch month dollar sales of” Marvel’s Spider-Man 2″ exceeded those of September 2018’s “Marvel’s Spider-Man” by a double-digit percentage. Nintendo’s (NTDOY) “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” debuted as the #2 best-selling game of October 2023. It currently ranks as the 21st best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date, though Piscatella noted that digital sales for Nintendo published titles are not included in the title sales ranking charts. Roblox (RBLX) was released on PlayStation platforms during October and ranked 4th across all titles on PlayStation 5 in U.S. monthly active users, according to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, trailing only”Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II,” Epic Games’ “Fortnite” and “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.” Other top sellers for the month were Ubisoft’s (UBSFY) “Assassin’s Creed Mirage,” Electronic Arts’ (EA) “Madden NFL 24” and “EA Sports FC 24,” and Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) “Mortal Kombat 1.” Investors in Epic include Tencent (TCEHY), KKR (KKR), Disney (DIS), and Sony.
GFK OCTOBER DATA:
Roughly 1.6M digital video games were purchased in the U.K. in October, a 24% decline year-over-year, Gamesindustry.biz’s Christopher Dring reported last week, citing data from GSD. Meanwhile, data from GfK show that physical game sales rose 8% to 1.08M units, the author notes. The main source of the overall decline is the fact that “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” released in October 2022, while this year’s “Modern Warfare 3” launched in November. Top sellers for the month of the October in the U.K. include “EA Sports FC 24,” “Spider-Man 2,” Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” and “Assassin’s Creed Mirage.”
Meanwhile, Gamesindustry.biz’s Sophie McEvoy reported, citing GfK, that Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Hogwarts Legacy” returned to the top spot in the U.K.’s weekly physical video game sales charts following the release of the Nintendo Switch version, as well as early Black Friday discounting, pushing “Modern Warfare 3” to the runner-up spot. Black Friday deals have also helped increased sales for titles such as “EA Sports FC 24,” which ended in third place, and “Assassin’s Creed Mirage,” which jumped from tenth place to eighth following a 165% sales boost, the author noted. Other top sellers for the week in the U.K. were “Spider-Man 2,” “Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” “Super Mario RPG,” and Outright Games’ “Bluey: The Video Game.”
Click here to check out recent Media Buzz Sentiment on Warner Bros. Discovery as measured by TipRanks.
OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:
- Sony plans to release “The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered” for PlayStation 5 on January 19, 2024 [read more]
- Bandai Namco (NCBDY) has formed a new Nintendo-focused development team, Gamesindustry.biz reports [read more]
- Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told a court that Google (GOOGL) has “de facto control” over its Play Store, NY Times reports [read more]
- Sony’s PlayStation Portal streaming device sold out in its first two days of availability, Kotaku reports [read more]
- Roblox said it is “comfortable” with consensus FY24 forecast for bookings and adjusted EBITDA [read more]
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Originally Posted November 21, 2023 – What You Missed This Week in Video Games
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