Although Circana is a little late with its US games market breakdown for May 2024, it is still full of valuable insights (including some surprising data).
Ghost of Tsushima
- US consumers spent a total of $3.97 billion on video games, hardware, and accessories in May, Circana’s Mat Piscatella reported on X. This is down 6% year-over-year.
- Hardware experienced the biggest decline, falling 40% year-over-year to $202 million. Spending on game content and accessories amounted to $3.6 billion (-3%) and $148 million (-8%), respectively.
- Piscatella noted that this “can be partially attributed to the strength of the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the May 2023 comparable period.”
May 2024 U.S. Video Game Market Highlights from Circana – Projected U.S. total spending on video game hardware, content and accessories fell 6% in May 2024 when compared to a year ago, to $4.0 billion. Year-to-date 2024 spending was 2% higher than a year ago, at $22.8 billion. pic.twitter.com/QtKko05BoI
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 8, 2024
- Ghost of Tsushima was the best-selling premium game in the US in May, largely thanks to its successful launch on Steam. It is further evidence that Sony’s PC strategy continues to work well.
- It is followed by Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (excluding digital sales). Other new releases in the top 20 were Homeworld 3 (#14) and F1 24 (#18). Piscatella also noted that Hellblade 2 only ranked 37th in dollar sales (21st on Xbox).
- Helldivers 2 remained the best-selling premium title in the US year-to-date, followed by Call of Dty: Modern Warfare III, Dragon’s Dogma II, MLB: The Show 24 (excluding digital sales), and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.
May 2024 Top 20 Best-Selling Premium Games – U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content) pic.twitter.com/V751fMRtbl
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 8, 2024
- In terms of player engagement, Fortnite and Call of Duty remained the two most played games on both Xbox and PlayStation. Helldivers 2 continued to dominate the Steam charts by monthly active users.
- Interestingly, XDefiant debuted at #5 on PS5 and #6 on Xbox Series X|S, respectively. Ubisoft’s free-to-play shooter is not available on Steam, so there is no data for its engagement on PC.
May 2024 Top 10 Titles Played on Steam Ranked by U.S. Monthly Active Users (Source: Circana Player Engagement Tracker) pic.twitter.com/uFx1E4vNQ7
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 8, 2024
- According to Sensor Tower, Monopoly Go! and Royal Match remained the top mobile games in the US by player spending. Brawl Stars and Dice Dreams experienced the biggest increases in revenue, with their consumer spend up 35% and 22% month-over-month, respectively.
- As for console sales, PlayStation 5 remained the leader in both unit and dollar sales. Nintendo Switch ranked 2n in unit sales, while Xbox Series X|S ranked 2nd in dollars.
- “Through each console’s first 43 months in market, PlayStation 5 unit sales lead those of PlayStation 4 by 8%, while Xbox Series trails Xbox One by 13% and remains slightly behind Xbox 360,” Piscatella added.