U.S. video game spending rose 1% y/y in 2023, says Circana

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that annual U.S. spending on video game content, hardware and accessories reached $57.2B in 2023, an increase of 1% when compared to 2022. December spending grew 4%, to $7.9B. Video game content spending ended 2023 1% higher than 2022, driven by a 13% increase in digital premium download spending on console platforms. Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) “Hogwarts Legacy” finished as 2023’s best-selling video game in the U.S. market in dollar sales. It is the first year since 2008 that a non-“Call of Duty” (MSFT) or Rockstar (TTWO) developed title ranked first. “Hogwarts Legacy” was the best-selling game of the year on PlayStation (SONY) platforms, ranked 2nd on Xbox platforms, and placed 5th on Nintendo (NTDOY) platforms. Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III” was both the best-selling game of Dec and the #2 best-selling game of 2023. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” ended 2023 ranked 7th. Call of Duty was the best-selling franchise in U.S. full game dollar sales for a record 15th consecutive year. Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” was the best-selling game of 2023 on Nintendo platforms, and 5th best-selling game overall, despite Nintendo not sharing its digital sales for inclusion in the best-selling title charts. Epic Games’ “Fortnite” featured the highest unique monthly active users on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles in the US market during December, while indie title “Lethal Company” ranked 1st on Steam. Other top sellers for the month of December were Nintendo’s “Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” Electronic Arts’ (EA) “Madden NFL 24,” Sony’s “Spider-Man 2,” and Ubisoft’s (UBSFY) “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.” Investors in Epic include Tencent (TCEHY), KKR (KKR), Disney (DIS), and Sony.