In February 2022, the video game industry consumer spend in the US saw a slight decline year-over-year, the NPD Group reported. Overall sales were $4.4 billion, which is down 6% compared to a year ago.
Key takeaways from the report
- Players spent $3.9 billion on video game content (digital and physical copies, DLCs, subscriptions, etc.), which is down 4% year-over-year.
- Consumers spent $295 million on video game hardware, which is down 27% compared to February 2021.
- Consumers spent $180 million on accessories, which is down 7% year-over-year.
February 2022 US NPD THREAD – February 2022 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories fell 6% when compared to a year ago, to $4.4B. Declines were experienced across all major categories of spend, with hardware showing the largest YoY % decline. pic.twitter.com/zoS5v6jN8Y
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) March 11, 2022
- Matt Piscatella noted on Twitter that console supply is still a market challenge as total market spending has been declining for four months straight when compared to a year ago.
- Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console of the month, with PlayStation 5 leading in year-to-date sales.
- Elden Ring became the best-selling game of February 2022. It had the second biggest launch month sales in the past 12 months. The latest FromSoftware title is followed by Horizon Forbidden West.
More data from the NPD Group report can be found here.