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.
Xbox’s revenue in the month of March 2022 set 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.
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.