It’s beautiful outside here in the Tri-State. To me, that’s the perfect opportunity for everyone to enjoy another sales recap!
This time it’s April’s domestic games industry spend report from tracking firm Circana, formerly known as The NPD Group.
Last month, a solid boost from hardware and various premium game releases weren’t enough to offset lower or flat performance elsewhere. This downward movement in key areas resulted in a 5% decline for total spending.
In fact, this past April closely resembled last year’s headlines.
At that time, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was the top-selling game. Hardware also generated growth, although overall sales dipped in the high single-digits.
This year it’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor blasting to the top of the premium software charts. Unfortunately, every sub-section within Video Game Content except for non-mobile subscription sales exhibited declines, meaning that even with new launches, people spent less on gaming.
Just like last year, Video Game Hardware was the only category to move upward in April, bolstered by big gains from Sony’s PlayStation 5, the month’s best seller by revenue, and Nintendo Switch which led by units sold.
“It’s good to see all the new games in the Top 20,” wrote Circana’s Mat Piscatella. “But Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Elden Ring provided a tough year ago comparison.”
There were certainly good signals, like consistency in console supply and a healthy number of AAA title launches. Still, mobile continued to struggle, Xbox is nowhere to be found plus inflationary pressure in the market remained. Folks chose other forms of entertainment, perhaps adjacent to gaming like seeing an awesome The Super Mario Bros. Movie, or simply went outside to touch grass, basking in the burgeoning springtime weather.
Historically, April was still a solid result even for overall sales. Here’s a closer look at these monthly figures and, further down, a set of predictions as the industry looks ahead to a Zelda-filled May.
United States Games Industry Sales (April 2nd – April 29th, 2023)
Referencing the above gallery, in totality, people spent $4.12 billion in games during April which is 5% less than the same month in 2022. The annual spend amount is currently trending down a modest 2%, to $17.71 billion. That’s actually a marked improvement since the first quarter as I wrote about in March, when the annual figure was trending towards 5% lower.
April was already the third month this year to experience a decline. The only exception was February due to a substantial boost from Hogwarts Legacy. Last month’s soft result was attributed to a decline in the broadest category of Content, which includes software, add-on, subscription and related spending. Essentially, while people bought more consoles, they spent less on the things they play on those devices. Peripheral spending was consistent, at least.
Focusing on the Content segment, sales dipped 6% in April to $3.6 billion. This means it made up 87% of the overall figure, compared to 88% last year. Within 2023 to date, Content sales are currently down 4%, to $15.11 billion.
Mobile contributes a major portion of Content sales, and Circana’s report said that spending trends were “relatively stable” compared to March. This doesn’t tell a whole lot. All we know is mobile is one of the sub-categories that declined year-on-year because, unfortunately, the report doesn’t get more granular. The top five earners for mobile during April were Candy Crush Saga, Roblox, Royal Match, Coin Master and Gardenscapes.
The story within premium software was new games. Titles launched in April occupied seven of the Top 15 slots on the overall chart.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor leading April was a super impressive win for Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts, considering it went on sale two days before the tracking period ended. Even with that short amount of time, it’s already the 4th best-selling title of 2023. As a quick comparison, its predecessor Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order launched in second behind only Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in November 2019 during a hectic pre-holiday rush.
April’s runner-up was Dead Island 2, another new launch. It’s a great start for the long-awaited zombie slasher from Dambuster Studios and Deep Silver, which is immediately the year’s 6th best-selling game. This domestic performance reflects its global success, as it sold over a million units within three days on market. Way back in September 2011, the original Dead Island started in 3rd.
Further down, Electronic Arts had another Top 10 finisher in April with PGA Tour at #7. Capcom’s popular Mega Man Battle Network, which surpassed 1 million units globally as the fastest-selling title in Mega Man history, ranked at #8. The latter was the month’s top-selling title on Nintendo Switch as a platform.
In a rare appearance for Microsoft’s Xbox brand, Minecraft Legends started in 11th place. Compare this position to Minecraft Dungeons, which debuted in 15th back in May 2020. These are certainly impacted by the lack of Xbox Game Pass in these kinds of charts, because it’s not realistic to break out spending for individual titles on the service.
The last of the new releases in April were Final Fantasy I-VI Bundle from Square Enix at #14 then Nintendo’s Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp one spot down at #15. While the latter’s performance seems lackluster at first, it’s actually pretty good since Nintendo doesn’t share digital. It was the month’s 3rd best-selling title on Switch.
For the 2023 ranks to date, the main movement happened because of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Dead Island 2 slotting high on the list, thus pushing two PlayStation console exclusives out of the Top 10: The Last of Us Part 1 and God of War: Ragnarök.
Check out the full charts below.
Top-Selling Games of April 2023, U.S., All Platforms (Physical & Digital Dollar Sales):
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Dead Island 2
- MLB: The Show 23^
- Resident Evil 4
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Hogwarts Legacy
- PGA Tour 2023
- Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection
- FIFA 23
- Mario Kart 8*
- Minecraft Legends
- Elden Ring
- Minecraft
- Final Fantasy I-VI Bundle
- Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp*
- New Super Mario Bros.*
- The Last of Us Part 1
- Pokémon Scarlet & Violet*
- Madden NFL 23
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury*
Top-Selling Games of 2023 So Far, U.S., All Platforms (Physical & Digital Dollar Sales):
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Resident Evil 4
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- MLB: The Show 23^
- Dead Island 2
- Dead Space Remake
- FIFA 23
- Madden NFL 23
- Elden Ring
- The Last of Us Part 1
- God of War: Ragnarök
- Mario Kart 8*
- Minecraft
- Pokémon Scarlet & Violet*
- Fire Emblem Engage*
- Forspoken
- Sonic Frontiers
- Octopath Traveler II
- NBA 2K23*
Hardware continued as the bright spot in April’s announcement, as it’s been lately due to stock being consistent and ongoing demand from potential buyers. This segment grew 7% last month to $367 million. It’s up 18% for the year to date, earning upwards of $1.82 billion.
Driving April’s bump were double-digit dollar gains for both PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, as compared to the corresponding time in 2022. PlayStation 5 clearly continued its momentum from March, when it moved past PlayStation 4 sales when launch-aligned here in the States, leading the company to achieve its global annual hardware target when it reported fiscal results recently.
Importantly for this consumer report, not only are inventories present, people are consistently looking to snatch up both consoles to play aforementioned new releases and evergreen experiences alike. The $367 million of April is the best hardware spend for an April month since around the start of the pandemic in 2020, when it was $420 million.
When measured by dollars generated, PlayStation 5 was top dog for April driven by its loftier price tag. Nintendo Switch came in second place by this metric.
Flip that around if using units as the measure: Nintendo Switch sold the most units, while PlayStation 5 was runner-up. This is mainly due to the introduction of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s OLED model, which had a “very strong” start according to Piscatella.
Expanding to 2023 right now, PlayStation 5 is currently leading by both dollar sales and units moved. As it’s easy to see, Nintendo Switch is second by both of those.
What’s also clear is a distinct lack of contribution from the consistently-third-place Xbox Series X|S. While it’s partly because of Microsoft’s shift away from a hardware focus towards ecosystem and subscription, I’m slowly becoming more concerned with Xbox’s performance as compared to peers. Console sales are moving in the wrong direction, even alongside Nintendo’s long-in-the-tooth Switch.
CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer made some rather divisive comments recently in an interview with Kinda Funny, discussing the brand’s current spot within the industry and hardware cycle. I commend Spencer for fielding questions at a tricky time for Xbox, with declining console revenue and a disastrous start for Redfall. What irked me is two-fold. He’s been singing a similar “we have to do better” tone for years, even generations, now. The trajectory isn’t great, even if there are momentary high points like Forza Horizon 5 and Hi-Fi RUSH. Then, certain quotes here have a defeatist slant which is never something people want to hear from a brand’s ambassador.
The boss man seemed almost reserved to the fact that Xbox isn’t picking up market share. Sure, there’s no silver bullet that will turn the tide. Yet lacking a consistent output of exclusive titles and not appealing to the core gamer is unacceptable. I’d love to see a media outlet dig into the underlying fundamentals of the business, hardware in particular, because supply should no longer be an issue. Its earnings reports and regional results imply consumers are balking at picking up Xboxes, which is quite concerning even if that’s the smaller portion of Microsoft’s gaming revenue.
Alright. Rant over. Back to my regularly-scheduled conclusion of April’s recap.
The final segment of Accessories was, somehow, exactly the same as last year’s monthly figure at this time: $158 million. This means it turned positive for 2023 to date, moving up 1% to $779 million.
While not as pronounced, Accessories are running somewhat parallel to how Hardware is faring. Plus, it’s feeling the impact of premium peripherals. The higher-priced PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge Wireless controller in black repeated as the monthly best-seller. The premium pad is also 2023’s top-selling accessory right now.
Similar to the past couple months since its debut, there’s no mention of Sony’s PlayStation VR2. February’s release for the device looks much more like a soft launch now, both literally and commercially, mainly because it’s currently available only via Sony’s own storefront.
Last month’s general performance was decent, even if it’s the second straight yearly decline for an April month since maxing out back in 2021. It was a good time for big hitters like Star Wars and Dead Island franchises, plus Sony and Nintendo benefited from an improving hardware environment.
Personally, I’m keeping a close eye on mobile to determine when, or if, it can bounce back to provide a net benefit to content output. Right now, the industry is mainly being supported by blockbuster launches and console availability, especially as subscription spend normalizes and matures.
Shifting focus towards May, this might be the easiest prediction segment I write all year:
It’s Nintendo’s time to shine. (Zel-duh.)
For Hardware as a category, Switch is fully set to break PlayStation 5’s currently monthly streak on dollar sales, as I expect the hybrid device to lead by both revenue and units.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will undoubtedly be May’s best-selling software, even without digital. I mean, it’s already sold 10 million units during its first weekend alone, 4 million of which was in the Americas. The only other title on a Nintendo platform to ever reach the 10 million threshold in three days was November 2022’s Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and that’s really two games counted as one!
This means that Tears of the Kingdom is not only the biggest Zelda launch of all time, beating out its predecessor, it’s the single fastest-selling software on a Nintendo platform in the history of Nintendo platforms.
What other new launches might chart? Take-Two Interactive’s LEGO 2K Drive is an intriguing one later this week, as I see Top 10 potential on the brand recognition alone. I don’t think the aforementioned Redfall from Xbox & Bethesda has even a remote chance, and I’m pessimistic on Daedalic Entertainment’s The Lord of the Rings: Gollum as well. Most publishers smartly moved out of Nintendo’s way.
Within Accessories, the official retail launch of PlayStation VR 2 could bump up the accessories portion. Will it? I’m not sure, though I’d bet spending will at least be flat again.
All of this will lead to overall domestic spending growth in May, I’d say in the mid-single digits with upside into the teens.
“May should be fun,” Piscatella said, sharing my sentiment. “Subscription growth continues to slow. PlayStation VR2 coming to retail [is] happening not a moment too soon.”
I recommend checking out his Twitter thread for Circana’s full report. Until next time, be well everyone. Thanks for reading!
*Digital Sales Not Included
^Xbox & Nintendo Switch Digital Sales Not Included
Sources: Capcom, Circana, Kinda Funny, Nintendo.
-Dom