2020 was a grand year for the gaming industry, since most of the general population found itself stuck at home for extended periods of time, looking for ways to pass time. Moreover, there were some exceptional hardware launches in the year, which include new GPUs from Nvidia and AMD, the PS5 and Xbox Series X. All of this amounted to a massive growth in the sector, and according to analysis by NDP, the market grew by 27% over last year.
Dec 2020 US NPD THREAD – December 2020 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories reached a December record $7.7B, 25% higher when compared to a year ago. Full year spending also set a new record, totaling $56.9B, 27% higher than 2019. pic.twitter.com/JFTL7eOEat
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 15, 2021
December, which was just one month after the PS5 and Xbox Series X (and Xbox Series S) launched, saw a massive growth of 25% in consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories. Overall, users spent a record breaking $7.7 billion in the last month of the year.
Hardware sales stood at $1.35 billion in December 2020, an increase of 38 percent when compared to a year ago, and the highest total for a December month since the $1.37 billion achieved in December 2013. Unsurprisingly, this is when the last generation of consoles-PS4 and Xbox One were launched. The fact that sales this year were close to 2013’s numbers despite manufacturing restrictions due to pandemic speak volumes about the growth of the gaming industry.
With all that said, neither PS5 nor the new Xbox was the top grosser of the year. That title goes to Nintendo Switch, which sold the most units and generated more the most revenue in both December and the entire 2020. “Annual dollar sales of Switch hardware were the 2nd highest for a platform in U.S. history. Only the 2008 dollar sales of Nintendo Wii were higher,” Piscatella said.
PS5 bagged the second place when it comes to pure revenue, while PS4 still sold more units than its successor.
Over the entire year, users spent $5.3 billion on hardware alone, which was 35% higher than 2019. Before this, the most revenue produced by hardware for an entire year was $5.6 billion, which was reached in 2011.
He also added that:
US NPD SW – Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War was the best-selling game of both December as well as 2020, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was 2020’s 2nd best-seller. Call of Duty ranked as the best-selling gaming franchise in the U.S. market for a record 12th consecutive year. pic.twitter.com/XM820w7GYc
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 15, 2021
