Gaming industry watcher The NPD Group released the sales record for the month of June 2016 in the US and for the first time has included the digital sales as well giving somewhat of a clear picture of the gaming industry and revenue distribution from each channel.
The report says that spending on video game related products have been low in the US by 22 per cent from June 2015. Consumers spent $652.2 million in June 2016 against $878.7 million which was spent in June 2015.
The breakdown of the numbers show that hardware was hit the most with the sales down by massive 40 per cent from 2015. Consoles and video game sales too were down by 20 per cent with accessories down by 6 per cent.
The inclusion of digital sales include sales from Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam games — although NPD does not have data from every publisher or alternative PC stores like EA’s Origin or Ubisoft’s Uplay. Also, huge amount of sales from sources like DLC, mobile and subscription–not to mention the very healthy used game trade. The numbers do not reflect the market as a whole due to missing sales numbers but NPD says this will give an understanding of the wider market and how is it performing.
The sales of video games as compared to June 2015 have been on a downward spiral mainly due to big release last year Batman: Arkham Knight. Compared to that this year in June there was no major release other than Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst which did not attract much sales.
Hardware sales too are suffering as Sony and Microsoft prepare to launch revamped and revised consoles. Microsoft is launching the slimmer Xbox One S in August, while Sony is planning to launch the more powerful code-named PlayStation 4 Neo sometime soon.
“Poor comparisons to last June, where software and hardware sales were bolstered by strong launches like Batman: Arkham Knight, led to a sharp 26 per cent year-over-year decline in overall spending across software, hardware and accessories,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “Poor comparisons for new launches were a major reason for the software sales decline seen this June,” said Callahan. “June 2016 launches decreased 67 per cent, translating to 1.8 million fewer units, and nearly $114 million fewer dollars. Specifically, the top new launch of June 2015 was Batman: Arkham Knight, which sold over five times the amount of unit and dollar sales generated by the top June 2016 new launch, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” said Callahan.
Hardware, however, performed even worse.
“Hardware’s drop in sales represented 58 per cent of the overall decline in dollar volume compared to last June. Declines in average prices by 15 per cent, coupled with a 32 per cent decline in units resulted in hardware spending totalling $181 million, a 42 per cent decrease versus last June,” Callahan explained. “[Current-generation] hardware, the primary driver of this decrease, saw sales decline 43 per cent, or $117 million.”
Even when hardware sales were off track, Blizzard game Overwatch was going all guns blazing on the charts and was the best-selling game of June 2016. Inclusion of digital sales gave Grand Theft Auto V a big boost as it climbed the charts to the second spot. June releases Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst features on the list at number three and five spot respectively. May release DOOM too did well last month and enjoys the fourth spot. The list was completed by the latest NBA 2K, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Destiny: The Taken King and Minecraft taking the bottom slots.
NPD predicts the sales number will see a turnaround once the new consoles from Microsoft and Sony hit the shelves and a number of new games which are lined up for release later in the year.