Circana is back with its monthly overview of the US games market. September 2024 saw a sharp decline in hardware sales and the dominance of sports titles.
EA Sports FC 25
- The US video game market generated $4.37 billion in September, down 6% year-over-year. According to Circana executive director and industry analyst Mat Piscatella, the decline was driven a significant drop in hardware sales and a small dip in content.
- Revenue from video game content reached $3.91 billion, down 3% compared to the same period last year.
- Hardware sales fell 44% year-over-year to $251 million. Piscatella noted that this is the “lowest monthly hardware spend total for a September month since 2019 ($242 million).
- Despite a 45% decline in US revenue, PlayStation 5 remained the leader in both unit and dollar sales. Xbox Series X|S (-54% YoY) ranked 2nd in dollar sales, while Nintendo Switch (-23%) was 2nd in units sold.
Image credit: Circana
- EA Sports FC 25 was the highest-grossing premium game in the US last month, dethroning Madden NFL 25. It showed a double-digit percentage growth compared to EA Sports FC 24, also reaching the “highest US launch month dollar sales of any soccer game released to date.”
- Overall, there are five sports titles in the top 10: four from Electronic Arts and one from Take-Two (NBA 2K25 debuted at #7).
- Astro Bot ranked 2nd in dollar sales last month. Other new releases in the top 20 were The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (#4, physical copies only), NHL 25 (#9), Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics (#16), and Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 (#18, physical copies only).
Image credit: Circana
Top 10 best-selling premium games in the US year-to-date
Note: Six products on the list are sports games, including EA Sports MVP Bundle (deluxe editions of Madden NFL 25 and College Football 25, in addition to other rewards). The top 20 also includes NBA 2K24, Madden NFL 24, and EA Sports FC 24.
- EA Sports College Football 25
- Helldivers II
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
- EA Sports MVP Bundle
- Elden Ring
- Dragon’s Dogma II
- Madden NFL 25
- MLB: The Show 24
- WWE 2K24
- EA Sports FC 25 (new)
- Call of Duty HQ ranked 1st in monthly active users (MAU) on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S last month. Fortnite took 2nd place on both platforms.
- When looking at other games on the PS5 engagement chart, MLB: The Show 24 jumped 60 positions to #6 (thanks to its addition to the PS Plus catalog), and NBA 2K25 debuted at #7.
- Deadlock remained the leader in MAU on Steam, followed by Counter-Strike 2. Space Marine 2 ranked 3rd in engagement following its successful launch on the platform. Satisfactory jumped 97 positions thanks to its 1.0 launch.
- Monopoly GO! continues to dominate the mobile games market, remaining the highest-grossing title in the US. Sensor Tower’s Samuel Aune told Circana that Brawl Stars, which returned to the top 10 at #8, saw a 64% growth in its monthly revenue compared to August thanks to its SpongeBob collaboration.
- Downloads of Last War: Survival, which returned to the top 10 at #6, grew 42% month-over-month, “reaching an all-time daily high of 430,000 and a new daily velocity of downloads around triple what Last War: Survival was pulling before.”