December 2022 NPD: Holiday gross sales increase in any other case sluggish 12 months

The U.S. gaming {industry} completed robust in 2022 regardless of it being an in any other case sluggish 12 months, in keeping with industry-tracking agency The NPD Group. While the 12 months general was down barely — consistent with the widespread view that 2022 is a “bust” corrective 12 months following the pandemic growth — spending on {hardware} and subscriptions boosted gross sales to a slight year-over-year improve for December.

“U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories totaled $7.6 billion in December 2022, an increase of 2% when compared to a year ago,” stated NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. “Video game hardware spending grew 16%, offsetting declines in both content (-1%) and accessories (-2%).”

In addition to the month-to-month gross sales, NPD additionally supplied its year-end statistics, together with gross sales figures for particular person video games in 2022. Total recreation gross sales for 2022 have been down 5% from 2021, a smaller distinction than the corporate has recorded in earlier months. Hardware gross sales really improved in 2022, which means that the availability chain points from earlier within the 12 months have eased.

Piscatella added, “The December growth brought full year 2022 spending to $56.6 billion, 5% below 2021 levels. Gains in spending in hardware and subscription content were offset by declines across other areas of spending. Factors impacting 2022 spending included continued supply constraints of console hardware, a relatively light slate of new premium releases, and macroeconomic conditions.”

December 2022 NPD: Top 20 best-selling video games of the month within the U.S.

NPD tracks bodily gross sales at retailers, but it surely additionally will get digital information straight from publishers. Not each firm participates. For instance, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party gross sales and Activision Blizzard doesn’t present its Battle.web gross sales.

These charts are sorted by greenback gross sales — not variety of items offered. And that is for full-game gross sales and doesn’t embrace in-game spending.

The record of best-selling video games — each for the month and the 12 months (see beneath) — don’t actually comprise any nice surprises this month. Several video games have jumped again onto the record thanks partly to vacation gross sales and heavy-hitting franchises like Pokémon and Call of Duty proceed to prime the record. November releases, Sonic Frontiers and God of War Ragnarök, each proceed to chart properly.

Out of the brand new video games launched in December, Need for Speed Unbound has charted the very best, beating out Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion seemingly as a result of latter’s console exclusivity. The Callisto Protocol additionally managed to make the charts. Despite releasing throughout the tail finish of the 12 months, the title launched with out a lot competitors.

Recently, Ubisoft introduced that it was slicing again on recreation growth, canceling three unannounced titles. One of the components it cited in these measures was the underneath efficiency of its late 2022 titles, particularly Just Dance 2023 and Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. Both titles managed to make the best-sellers record for December, seemingly partly because of vacation gross sales.

December 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Nintendo-platform video games within the U.S.

December 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling PlayStation-platform video games within the U.S.

December 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Xbox-platform video games within the U.S.

Full-year 2022 NPD: 20 best-selling video games of 2022

Full-year 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling video games on Nintendo platforms

Full-year 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling video games on PlayStation platforms

Full-year 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling video games on Xbox platforms