Published in Gaming

Console sales fall in the US

by on09 July 2024


40 per cent fall in May

Hardware spending on consoles in the US declined by 40 per cent in May compared to the previous year, according to beancounters at Circana.

This fall includes popular consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. The main reason is the tough comparison with May 2023, which saw the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's masterpiece and massive commercial success for Nintendo that drove many sales of Switch hardware.

This May, Sony's PlayStation comes out on top. Ghost of Tsushima was the best-seller in May 2024, surging back from rank seventy-one in the chart thanks to the game's successful release on PC.

During this time, Nintendo also released the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake. However, Sony remained on top with better sales in physical and digital media from Ghost of Tsushima.

Helldivers 2 was a massive release for Sony, and it can be played only on PC or PlayStation 5. The large number of sales accrued with these two games shows that Sony's strategy of bringing its exclusives to PC is incredibly successful, tapping into a whole new market.

More PlayStation exclusives, such as The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn, and many more, are being ported to PC. As this happens, Sony's sales skyrocket as it adds a new layer of accessibility to the game for fans who may not be able to afford a PlayStation 5.

Circana also notes that in May 2024, all content spending dropped three per cent, compared to a 13 per cent growth in mobile content spending. As more games are released on mobile (including CAPCOM's Resident Evil series), new audiences can discover them and usually get them for cheaper than they may get on another console.

The Nintendo Switch is seeing the most significant drop in sales, which could be related to the upcoming announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2. Many players avoid buying a new Nintendo Switch because they don't want to have outdated technology, and a new era of future games could be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2. Most users who wish to own a Switch already have one by now.

Last modified on 09 July 2024
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