Video game spending in the US reached its highest point since 2010, according to a new NPD Group report, with sales through June reaching $6.6 billion on hardware, software, and accessories. It’s the highest total for the first six months of the year since spending hit $7 billion a decade ago.
Spending has been dramatically higher in 2020 than it was compared to last year, with sales through June up 19 percent year over year, and June sales specifically were up 26 percent compared to the same month in 2019. While NPD’s numbers don’t cite a specific reason for the boost in sales, it’s hard not to draw the conclusion that a major contributing factor was the spike in video game playing caused by millions of people having a sudden boost in free time thanks to COVID-19 shutdowns.
US NPD VG – Year-to-date tracked spending across Video Game hardware, software, accessories and game cards reached $6.6 billion, an increase of 19% when compared to a year ago. This is the highest total for the year-to-date period since $7.0 billion was achieved in 2010. pic.twitter.com/r1DlD7OIfM
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 17, 2020
It’s not the first record 2020 has set for video game sales, either: US spending hit an all-time quarterly record earlier this year. And with new consoles on the way in the fall from both Microsoft and Sony (in the form of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5) to boost hardware sales, 2020’s record-setting run may be far from over.
