The first half of 2022 is in the books, and the year’s best-selling premium game Elden Ring has repeated as the top software amidst another downward slide in consumer spending.
Based on today’s monthly sales report from tracking firm The NPD Group, FromSoftware’s masterpiece has led the premium ranks every month since launch in February except for one.
This sort of early success, even for the premium soulslike developer, is truly remarkable. Plus, it’s mostly unpredictable even for the most bullish of analysts. Including me!
Speaking generally on the industry, while June wasn’t as quiet as May, it’s still been a chill start to the summer. Overall spend dipped double-digits again in June, marking eight consecutive months of declines. Subscription growth couldn’t outpace headwinds from most other categories. The first half of 2022 was no different for total market spending, coming in 10% lower than last year.
Two of the major segments, Content and Accessories, also declined double-digits. Hardware performed the best from a percentage standpoint, even if still down. Better PlayStation 5 inventories and the lower cost Switch helped stabilize a bit. Perhaps even the Steam Deck?
As I’ve said in recent articles, these reversions to more normalized spending are expected this year as we exit quarantine highs and suffer from the worst inflation in decades. It’s eroding buying power, which hurts when combined with limited supply on the hardware front and fewer premium launches.
Within the broadest category of Content, mobile spending fell albeit at a slower pace than May. Earlier titles Elden Ring and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga led the premium charts, while Mario Strikers Battle League debuted in the Top 3. There were five new entries among the Top 20 best-selling games.
There was a flip in Hardware that’s actually quite noteworthy. PlayStation 5 took the reigns in June as the best-selling console by dollar sales. Not only that, it also led first half of 2022 by this metric, stealing it away from the Xbox Series X|S family which was in the lead until now. This indicates Sony secured enough production to satiate more demand, not to mention its premium price point boosting that monthly revenue figure.
Speaking of the first half, the biggest factors right now for domestic spending on games are mean reversion from earlier parts of the pandemic, rampant inflation, availability of hardware at retail plus minimal premium games. Subscriptions and ongoing content aren’t enough to push spending towards growth. It’s a cooling off period compared to recent history for this variety of reasons, as the broader economy signals a looming recession. In fact, we might already be there.
What about the numbers behind these trends? It’s time to look deeper into June’s report.
United States Games Industry Sales (May 29th, 2022 – July 2nd, 2022)
Overall sales in June across all gaming categories settled at $4.34 billion, or 11% behind the same month in 2021. This figure is off 10% when expanding to the first six months of 2022, aggregating to $26.27 billion against last year’s $29.29 billion.
Underlying the decrease was lower spending in all segments during both time frames, as displayed in the gallery above. Silver lining is June’s lack of growth wasn’t as bad as March or May, when it shrunk 15% and 19% respectively.
Spending on Content (i.e. software, subscriptions, mobile and related areas) in June saw a similar 11% reduction, to $3.79 billion. During the first six months of 2022, Content spend declined 10% to $23 billion. Which means it comprised 87% of the monthly total and 88% of 2022 to date.
The bright spot here of subscription growth was bolstered by Sony’s PlayStation Plus rebranding attracting users to sign-up or upgrade existing plans. It displays the importance of subscriptions like this and Xbox Game Pass in propping up lulls in mobile and other content offerings.
Last month, mobile decreased nearly 11% which actually improved from the 13% dip in May. Google Play is driving this sub-segment downward, while App Store spending actually rose slightly for the first time since back in February. Very slightly, at 0.16%. Hey, it’s still growth!
This contraction in mobile is backed up by a recent report from Sensor Tower, a tracking firm that collaborates with The NPD Group for these monthly data drops, that global spending on mobile is trending down 7% so far.
Premium title activity picked up in June with some new arrivals. Still, the highest positions were occupied by familiar faces.
Namely Elden Ring, which continues its phenomenal first few months. It topped June’s overall software list, meaning it’s led every month since release except for April. The Bandai Namco-published game continues as best-seller for both 2022 and the latest 12-month period. The legs on this game are ridiculous. It’s maiden them a lot of money!
After Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga in second, we see the Switch in full effect. Mario Strikers Battle League kicked off its placing in 3rd during its initial month on sale, and led the Switch platform list. In fact, Nintendo published 4 of the Top 8 best-sellers on June’s combined list as recent titles like Nintendo Switch Sports and Kirby and the Forgotten Land stuck around. And might have been higher if Nintendo included digital sales.
A number of June releases settled outside the Top 10. F1 22, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Sonic Origins and The Quarry all started in this range.
Then there’s a couple legacy titles re-entering the Top 10 as Overwatch captured the 5th slot and Final Fantasy 7 Remake grabbed #9, impacted by sequel news for both franchises. These worked to push Call of Duty: Vanguard out of the Top 10, a rare sight for the series published by Activision Blizzard whose top executives fostered an environment of misconduct and harassment for years yet still haven’t been punished for it. (They probably never will.)
“In my opinion, it’s the lack of compelling new content that is holding back premium sales right now,” said The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella on Twitter. “New games that reach market are doing very well, there are just fewer of them. We also had the PlayStation Plus relaunch in June, which gave a nice kick to overall subscription spend in the month.”
As for the 2022 overall chart, there was no movement within the Top 10. Elden Ring, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Pokémon Legends: Arceus continue as the year’s biggest commercial successes.
See below for a full rundown of June and 2022 software rankings.
Top-Selling Games of June 2022, U.S., All Platforms (Physical & Digital Dollar Sales):
- Elden Ring
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Mario Strikers Battle League*
- MLB The Show 22^
- Overwatch
- Mario Kart 8*
- Nintendo Switch Sports*
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land*
- Final Fantasy 7: Remake
- Minecraft
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- F1 22
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes*
- Sonic Origins
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus*
- The Quarry*
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Top-Selling Games of 1st Half of 2022, U.S., All Platforms (Physical & Digital Dollar Sales):
- Elden Ring
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus*
- Horizon Forbidden West
- MLB The Show 22^
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Gran Turismo 7
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land*
- Mario Kart 8*
- Madden NFL 22
- Nintendo Switch Sports*
- Minecraft
- FIFA 22
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- Mario Party Superstars*
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Dying Light 2: Stay Human*
As for the category with the best year-on-year performance in June, or should I say the least severe decline, Hardware moved down 8% to $371 million. That means first half of 2022 spending on consoles totaled $2.13 billion, or 9% lower than last year’s result of $2.36 billion.
We’ve talked supply to death, and that’s certainly the driver here in addition to some other points I mentioned earlier. There is some good news, in particular for Sony, in that inventories are popping up here and there on both manufacturer storefronts and retailer shops alike. Nintendo Switch availability looks consistent as well.
Sony’s increased production led to PlayStation 5 taking the lead on dollar sales in June as it benefited from a double-digit spending increase. While a month doesn’t make a trend, this sort of data point is positive in this environment. And we’ll certainly take what we can get these days. For the month, Nintendo Switch came in second place by revenue.
Increased availability bumped Sony’s current generation box to win the first half of 2022 by dollar sales. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S family, which was leading up until last month, is currently the runner-up.
When using unit sales as the benchmark, Nintendo Switch won June followed by PlayStation 5. Switch also leads units for the year to date, with Xbox Series X|S next up.
Got all that? Hah. I know it’s a lot to sort out when looking at hardware from these multiple angles. I wrote last month that the data points to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S being very close when using revenue as the indicator, which is supported by Sony taking home June and moving into pole position for 2022. I’d imagine the gap is quite minimal in the scheme of things, and can turn based on whose supplies are producing more because both of these have premium price points.
Switch is consistently competing on units, though generating less revenue than its counterparts which is the logical outcome. It, like PlayStation really, also relies on major first-party titles more because they aren’t available anywhere else. Much less so than Xbox Series X|S which continues Microsoft’s mission of subscriptions and services.
Pushing into Accessories, this felt the worst hit of lower discretionary income and normalizing of buying on the consumer side as it experienced the worst declines of the three major categories.
Spending here on game pads, headphones and similar peripherals lowered 15% in June to $176 million. It saw a 14% decline during the year’s first half, totaling just over $1 billion compared to $1.22 billion during 2021 H1.
After Sony’s DualShock 4 led at least a couple months, the current generation PlayStation 5 DualSense is back as the month’s top-seller. This time, it’s the Midnight Black iteration of the DualSense that took home first place.
Expanding further, Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller continued as the best-selling accessory of 2022 currently. Which has been the case most of the year because of the higher relative cost per unit.
The domestic games industry bounced back a bit in June after a two-year spending low in May, showing occasional bright spots in areas like subscriptions, newer premium titles and a current hardware cycle that’s fighting the best it can against supply push-back.
Subscription spending is showing strength. Elden Ring can’t be stopped and five new games on the overall chart are propping up Content amidst softening areas like mobile. Even if the new games aren’t the biggest of commercial hits.
It does feel like the market is yearning for massive new AAA titles in this year of so many game delays, a sentiment echoed by Piscatella’s earlier comments. Game development is difficult in any environment, and teams are still adjusting to the new normal of hybrid working. Not to mention there are still coronavirus variants impacting many countries, plus people are contracting the virus for the second time. It’s a precarious situation, and I give developers credit for hanging in there right now.
Considering this, the calendar is now shaping up for the back half of 2022.
PlayStation seemingly locked in The Last of Us Part 1 remake for September plus God of War Ragnarök for its early November slot. Ubisoft’s collabo with Nintendo in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is October, while the French publisher’s Skull and Bones is slated for November as well. Nintendo has Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3 and Pokémon re-imaginings all before the holiday season. Gotham Knights, Saints Row reboot and, of course, the second Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have been positioned later in the year for a while now.
Before then, July is going to continue as a mostly dry summer month on the premium side. F1 22 will have a full month of sales on record. Stray is an intriguing indie title from Annapurrrrrna Interactive (had to do it), also hitting PlayStation Plus simultaneously next week. As Dusk Falls is a narrative adventure and Xbox console exclusive. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 is out soon on all major platforms, while Live a Live finally reaches the States via Switch. The month’s biggest drop is probably Xenoblade Chronicles 3 also on Switch, though it will only have two days in the period.
With this light of a schedule, I’ll stand behind Elden Ring as July’s top earner again. I can see Xenoblade establishing a Top 5 finish.
Within the Hardware segment, I’m upbeat on PlayStation 5 after its June performance and seeing more stock via anecdotes and retailers online. I think it takes the first month of 2022’s back half on revenue, while Switch stays atop the console charts on units.
July also brings the start of my favorite time of the quarter: earnings season! Before we reconvene for the next monthly NPD sales report, I’ll have articles covering the earnings calendar and major company results.
In the meantime, shout out to Piscatella’s thread on Twitter covering today’s report. I hope everyone has a great rest of the month, feel free to send a comment here or on social media. Be safe and well!
*Digital Sales Not Included, ^Xbox & Nintendo Switch Digital Sales Not Included
Comparisons are year-over-year unless otherwise noted.
Sources: GameDaily.Biz, The NPD Group, Venson Chou (Image Credit).
-Dom