Circana has released its monthly report on the US games market. July 2024 was marked by the launch of EA Sports College Football 25, which drove player spending on consoles.
EA Sports College Football 25
- The US video game market genereated $4.77 billion in July (+10% from the same period last year), according to a new report from Circana’s Mat Piscatella. Yer-to-date spending is now up 2% year-over-year at $32.1 billion.
- Spending on video game content grew 10% year-over-year to $4.26 billion, driven by 29% growth in console game revenue and 7.6% growth in mobile. PC game spending, however, fell 6%.
- Hardware spending grew 12% year-over-year to $326 million, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S sales up 25% and 48%, respectively. Nintendo Switch experienced a 44% decline in revenue in the US.
- PS5 remained the leader in unit and dollar sales, while Xbox Series X|S ranked 2nd in both categories.
- Piscatella noted that July 2024 is the first month with year-over-year growth in hardware spend since December 2023.
July 2024 U.S. Video Game Market Highlights from Circana – Projected U.S. spending on video game hardware, content and accessories reached $4.8B in July 2024, gaining 10% when compared to a year ago. 2024 year-to-date spending is now 2% higher than a year ago, at $32.1B. pic.twitter.com/CvBmszvoA8
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 21, 2024
- EA Sports College Football 25 was the best-selling premium game in July, with EA Sports MVP bundle rankind 2nd.
- The game’s storng debut also helped it dethrone Helldivers 2 to become the best-selling title year-to-date. Circana called it “the primary driver of both content and hardware growth on console platforms.”
- Piscatella added that launch sales of EA Sports College Football 25 more than tripled the lifetime dollar sales of Electronic Arts’ NCAA Football 07, the previous best-selling college footbal game in the US.
July 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/oiDy4xRySw
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 21, 2024
- When it comes to player engagement, Fortnite continued to dominate on PlayStation, but lost its top spot to Call of Duty HQ on Xbox. The First Descendant broke into the top 10 by MAU on both platforms, jumping 312 and 372 positions, respectively.
- Once Human, another Asian free-to-play hit, ranked 4th in MAU on Steam. Elden Ring remained the leader on the platform, followed by Counter-Strike 2 and The First Descendant (up 98 places).
July 2024 Top 10 Titles Played on Steam Ranked by U.S. Monthly Active Users (Source: Circana Player Engagement Tracker) pic.twitter.com/kVzzK5O5CK
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 21, 2024
- According to Sensor Tower, Monopoly Go! remained the highest-grossing mobile game in the US last month. It is followed by Roblox, Royal Match, Candy Crush Saga, and Pokémon GO. The latter jumped 5 positions from the previous month.
- Shooter and Simulation were the top-performing genres in July. For example, Free Fire, PUBG Mobile, and Goddess of Victory: Nikke all saw 50% increases in US player spending, with Call of Duty: Mobile’s revenue up 32% compared to June.