The latest NPD report has been revealed for the month of March 2022. All in all, consumer spending across video game hardware, content, and accessories declined 15%. Declines were seen across all major categories of spend. First Quarter spending reached $13.9 billion, falling 8% vs Q1 2021. Video game hardware dollar sales dropped 24% to $515 million while first-quarter hardware sales reached $1.2 billion. Xbox Series was the best-selling hardware platform of March 2022 and the first quarter in dollars. The Nintendo Switch led both time periods in unit sales. Elden Ring was the best-selling game of the month and ranked first in dollar sales among tracked titles across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

March 2022 US NPD THREAD – March 2022 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories declined 15% vs YA, to $4.9B. Declines were seen across all major categories of spend. First quarter 2022 spending fell 8% vs Q1 2021, to $13.9B. pic.twitter.com/gOUUdE3Dlp

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) April 25, 2022

Xbox’s revenue in the month of March 2022 set a new record as the $3.74 billion they made was the company’s “best non-holiday quarter” in Xbox history. 81% of the gaming revenue, around $3.02 billion is Xbox content and services (which encompasses game sales, digital transactions, subscriptions such as Xbox Game Pass, third-party game royalties, Xbox-related cloud services and advertising).

Elden Ring is the best-selling game in the month of March and still remains the best-selling game of 2022. It’s second over the 12 month period ending in March 2022 behind Call of Duty: Vanguard.

US NPD PREMIUM GAMES – YTD 2022 Top 20 Sellers pic.twitter.com/YTTDdFniWK

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) April 25, 2022

Followed behind Elden Ring in the top 10 of the month of March is Grand Turismo 7. The game set a new all-time launch month dollar sales record for a Gran Turismo franchise launch. Kirby and the Forgotten Land, MLB the Show 22, Horizon II: Forbidden West, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, WWE 2K22, Mario Kart 8, Call of Duty: Vanguard, and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin round out the rest of the top 10 best-selling games for March 2022.

New game releases accounted for half of the top 16 best-selling games of March 2022.

Spending of mobile games was down 12% year-over-year. There was a close to 25% decline for Google Pay games revenue during the period. The App Store games spending was down by less than a quarter of a percent. U.S. consumer spending on mobile games was off by less than 10% YoY in Q1.

The top 10 mobile games for March 2022 were Candy Crush Saga, Roblox, Coin Master, Garena Free Fire, Genshin Impact, Evony: The King’s Return, Bingo Blitz, Royal Match, and Candy Crush Soda Saga.

Video game accessories spending fell 23% compared to a year ago, to $227 million. First quarter video game accessory spending declined 16% to $592 million. The Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless controller was the best-selling accessory of March and remains the best-selling accessory year-to -date.