In these times of economic instability, people aren’t just saving money on purchases of physical goods like electronics. According to the latest statistics, video game sales are declining as well, dropping nearly $2 billion over the year. The pandemic boom period of video games is behind us.
Research firm NPD writes that U.S. video game spending, including content, hardware products and accessories, totaled $12.35 billion in Q2. That’s not insignificant, but it’s down $1.78 billion, or 13% from the same stretch last year.
If you analyze individual segments, content spending was $10.97 billion, down 13% from last year’s result. Hardware and accessories lost 1% and 11%, respectively, but mobile content was the worst performer.
But non-mobile subscriptions were up 15%. This is good news for users of Microsoft’s Xbox/PC Game Pass service. Sony’s PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium plans were introduced at the end of the quarter, so their contribution to the statistics is minimal.
So far, consumers continue to spend more on video games than they did before the pandemic. However, quarantine denial and the rising cost of living are forcing spending cuts.
The top-selling game for the quarter was LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Among hardware products, the Nintendo Switch console leads by number, as it has in almost every previous quarter since its launch in March 2017. The PlayStation 5 console is the leader in terms of sales revenue, Techspot writes.