PS4 Was May’s Top-Selling Game System for Fifth Straight Month, Says NPD
The PS4 was the top-selling videogame system in the U.S. in May for the fifth straight month, according to NPD’s latest sales data. It was also the fifth straight month in which Sony’s console outsold the Xbox One, said NPD. Industry videogame software sales, meanwhile, “rebounded” after several months of declines, on releases of several heavily in-demand titles, it said.
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Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) didn’t say Tuesday how many PS4s were sold in the U.S. last month and NPD stopped providing hardware sales data to reporters a while ago. Microsoft declined to say how many Xbox Ones were sold last month. The Xbox One could get a major sales boost in June because of Microsoft’s release last week of a cheaper console SKU that doesn’t include the Kinect motion sensor (CED May 14 p7). The new SKU is the same price as the PS4 and $100 less than the original Xbox One SKU that Microsoft is still fielding.
The Xbox One is still “off to the hottest start in Xbox history” and with the availability of the new $399 console option, “we look forward to the next chapter of the new generation,” Microsoft said Tuesday.
Total U.S. videogame hardware sales soared 95 percent last month (actually May 4-31) from May 2013, to $187 million, said NPD. As in prior months, the growth in hardware sales was fueled by home console hardware, sales of which jumped 137 percent from May 2013, said NPD analyst Liam Callahan. Although much of last month’s hardware sales growth was due to the PS4 and Xbox One, the Wii U and PS Vita also experienced year-over-year sales growth, he said. NOA’s Mario Kart 8 bundle for the Wii U and the Borderlands 2 bundle for the PS Vita are examples of hardware bundles that helped drive hardware sales last month, he said.
May Wii U hardware sales grew more than 85 percent over sales in May 2013 despite Mario Kart 8, a major new game release for the console, only being available for two days during the month, said Nintendo of America. The game was released May 30 in the U.S. The 3DS, meanwhile, was the No. 2-selling hardware system in the U.S. last month, behind only the PS4, it said.
Total May U.S. videogame industry sales across all products in the new physical retail channel grew 52 percent from a year earlier, to $586 million, said NPD. “Continued growth across” hardware and accessories sales, with a “significant” increase in new physical software spending, led to the total spending increase in the sector, said Callahan. The last time total new physical channel growth was so significant was June 2008, when it grew 53 percent, he said.
Videogame accessory sales grew a more modest 8 percent to $124 million. The growth was helped by continued strong demand for videogame point and subscription cards, interactive gaming toys and gamepads, said Callahan. Sales of those three accessory types combined grew 15 percent from May 2013, he said. Last month marked the highest-selling May data month on record for videogame point and subscription cards, he said.
Total May U.S. videogame software sales in the new physical retail channel increased 57 percent from May 2013, to $274 million, said NPD. Factoring in PC games, U.S. game software sales grew 51 percent, to $284 million. After six months of declines, software sales grew, on new releases including Ubisoft’s multi-platform Watch Dogs, the month’s top-selling game, and Nintendo’s Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U at No. 2, Bethesda’s multi-platform Wolfenstein: The New Order at No. 4, Activision’s multi-platform The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at No. 6 and Nintendo’s Kirby: Triple Deluxe for the 3DS at No. 9, said NPD. Collectively, last month’s new releases sold 800 percent more in dollars than May 2013 launches did a year ago, said Callahan. New releases represented 50 percent of dollar sales last month, compared with only 9 percent for new releases in May 2013, he said. The strong Watch Dogs showing allowed Ubisoft to be the top videogame publisher for the month, he said.
The dollars cited by NPD were only about 50 percent of the total that U.S. consumers spent on the game market last month, said Callahan. When factoring in NPD’s preliminary estimate for other physical channel sales including used games and rentals at $124 million, and its estimate for digital game sales at $787 million, Callahan projected that U.S. consumers spent $1.5 billion on the videogame sector last month.