wraggster
April 29th, 2019, 17:15
Tom Clancy's The Division 2 debuted well on the UK Charts, and it seems to have seen similar chart-topping success in the US as the No.1 game for March across both physical and digital sales.
The NPD Group's (https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/industry-expertise/video-games/) report (with analysis courtesy of Mat Piscatella) reveals that US spending on hardware, software, accessories and game cards reached $1.2 billion for the month of March, down 11% year-over-year thanks to decreases in all four segments. For the first quarter (January through March), total spending dropped 2% year-over-year to $3.2 billion, with hardware spending seeing declines (down 13%) that trumped gains in the other two segments (both up 2%).
Hardware's drop was the most dramatic in March alone as well, down 15% year-over-year to $282 million. The Nintendo Switch kicked off the year with strength despite the overall hardware drops, becoming the best-selling title both for March and for the quarter in both units and dollars.
Accessories and game cards saw a 7% drop year-over-year for March, down to $349 million.
As for software, it was down 11% year-over-year to $547 million across console, portable, and PC games, physical and digital, that are tracked by NPD. Following Tom Clancy's The Division 2 at No.1 for March was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at No.2, which seems to have beaten launch month sales of its FromSoftware predecessor Dark Souls III in worldwide digital sales (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-23-superdata-sekiro-sells-1-4m-digital-units-in-march-beating-dark-souls-iii-launch) but didn't quite manage the same feat in US-only physical and digital sales - though PC digital sales are not included in the NPD data.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-24-npd-nintendo-switch-continues-strong-sales-in-quarter-of-declines
The NPD Group's (https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/industry-expertise/video-games/) report (with analysis courtesy of Mat Piscatella) reveals that US spending on hardware, software, accessories and game cards reached $1.2 billion for the month of March, down 11% year-over-year thanks to decreases in all four segments. For the first quarter (January through March), total spending dropped 2% year-over-year to $3.2 billion, with hardware spending seeing declines (down 13%) that trumped gains in the other two segments (both up 2%).
Hardware's drop was the most dramatic in March alone as well, down 15% year-over-year to $282 million. The Nintendo Switch kicked off the year with strength despite the overall hardware drops, becoming the best-selling title both for March and for the quarter in both units and dollars.
Accessories and game cards saw a 7% drop year-over-year for March, down to $349 million.
As for software, it was down 11% year-over-year to $547 million across console, portable, and PC games, physical and digital, that are tracked by NPD. Following Tom Clancy's The Division 2 at No.1 for March was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at No.2, which seems to have beaten launch month sales of its FromSoftware predecessor Dark Souls III in worldwide digital sales (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-23-superdata-sekiro-sells-1-4m-digital-units-in-march-beating-dark-souls-iii-launch) but didn't quite manage the same feat in US-only physical and digital sales - though PC digital sales are not included in the NPD data.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-24-npd-nintendo-switch-continues-strong-sales-in-quarter-of-declines