U.S. video game spending fell 6% year-over-year in September, says Circana

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that projected U.S. total spending on video game hardware, content and accessories fell 6% during September 2024 when compared to a year ago. The decline was driven by a 44% drop in hardware spending and a 3% dip in content. 2024 year-to-date spending was flat when compared to the same period in 2023. Mobile content spending for the YTD period ending September was $1.7B higher than a year ago, while console content spending has fallen by $0.8B. Electronic Arts’ (EA) “EA Sports FC 25” was September’s best-selling video game in tracked spending, with double-digit percentage growth compared to “EA Sports FC 24” during its Sep 2023 launch month. “EA Sports FC 25” reached the highest U.S. launch month dollar sales of any soccer game released to date. Sony‘s (SONY) “Astro Bot” ranked as the #2 best-selling game of the month, debuting as the 25th best-seller of 2024 year-to-date. September video game hardware spending fell 44% when compared to a year ago, to $251M. This is the lowest monthly hardware spend total for a September month since 2019. PlayStation 5 again led the month’s hardware market in unit and dollar sales, with Xbox Series (MSFT) ranking 2nd in dollars and Nintendo Switch (NTDOY) #2 in units sold. Xbox Series X consoles comprised 58% of total Xbox Series units sold in September, and account for the majority of Xbox Series units sold life-to-date. 40% of total PlayStation 5 hardware unit sales in September came from Digital PS5 consoles. Digital consoles now comprise 18% of total life-to-date unit sales of PS5 hardware. Other top-selling games in the U.S. for the month of September were EA’s “Madden NFL 25” and “EA Sports College Football 25,” Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom,” Ubisoft’s (UBSFY) “Star Wars Outlaws,” Take-Two’s (TTWO) “NBA 2K25,” and Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) “Hogwarts Legacy.”