Circana: The US gaming market in December'24 and entire 2024
In the end, there is a decline compared to 2023.
General market condition
The American gaming market in December 2024 fell by 8.9% compared to the previous year - to $7.54 billion.
Gaming hardware sales dropped the most in December - by 29% YoY. Game sales fell by 5% YoY; by segments - console games fell by 21%, mobile games fell by 1%, and PC games grew by 13%. Revenue from subscription services also increased by 11%.
PlayStation 5 sales in December fell by 18% compared to December 2023. The situation is even worse for Xbox Series S|X and Nintendo Switch - sales decreased by 38%. PlayStation 5 became the most successful console in December and 2024 overall, with Nintendo Switch in second place.
After the first 50 months on the American market, PlayStation 5 is outpacing PS4 in the number of systems by 7%. And Xbox Series S|X is behind Xbox One by 18%.
49% of PlayStation 5 and 43% of Xbox Series S|X sold in December did not have a disc drive. In 2024, 45% of all PS5 purchased were without a disc drive and 44% of all Xbox Series S|X.
User spending on accessories in December remained almost unchanged - $671 million. PlayStation Portal became the most successful accessory both in December and throughout 2024, in terms of dollar sales. 4% of the PlayStation 5 audience in the US bought the accessory.
In 2024, the American gaming market also declined. The decrease was 1.1%, with a total volume of $58.7 billion.
The volume of spending on gaming content in 2024 increased by 2% compared to 2023 and reached $50.6 billion. It was only higher in 2021 ($52 billion). Growth across all categories, except for console game sales (this segment fell by 11% in 2024).
In 2024, user spending on gaming subscriptions increased by 4%. Most of the growth, it seems, comes from Game Pass.
Spending on physical copies of games in the US is actively declining. The decrease compared to 2008 (peak year) in 2024 is 85%.
Total spending on gaming hardware by the end of 2024 decreased by 25% - to $4.85 billion.
PlayStation 5 is now in 3rd place in terms of hardware sales revenue. Only Nintendo Switch and Xbox 360 are ahead. At the same time, in terms of the number of systems sold, the console is in 11th place.
Spending on gaming accessories in 2024 in the US increased by 6% to $3.16 billion. The best-selling accessory in units is DualSense.
In fact, the American gaming market has been on a plateau since 2020. However the jump in revenue from 2019 to 2020 outpaced the normal growth by far.
Game sales
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Madden NFL 25, and EA Sports College Football 25 are the most successful games in December in terms of dollar revenue.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the only December release that made it into the top 20 in revenue. The game took 14th place. At the same time, despite appearing in Xbox Game Pass at launch, the game is in 4th place in Xbox sales in December.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, EA Sports College Football 25, and Helldivers II became the best-selling games of the year. The Call of Duty series remains the revenue leader in the American market for the 16th year in a row. And EA Sports College Football 25 is the best-selling sports game in US history, if measured by dollar revenue.
MONOPOLY GO!, Roblox, and Royal Match became the highest-earning games in the US in December 2024. The data was shared by Sensor Tower. Roblox (+24% revenue compared to November) and Call of Duty: Mobile (+20% revenue compared to November) showed strong growth.
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Platform rankings for 2024
Top 5 in sales on PlayStation in 2024 - Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, EA Sports College Football 25, Helldivers II, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, and NBA 2K25 (for which digital sales in November-December are not accounted for). The latest hit from PlayStation - Astro Bot - is in 13th position.
On Xbox, the leaders are almost similar - EA Sports College Football 25, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Madden NFL 25, and NBA 2K25 (again - without digital sales in November-December).
Super Mario Party Jamboree, Mario Kart 8, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Hogwarts Legacy are the best-selling games on Nintendo Switch in 2024 in the US. It's important to note that for all Nintendo games, only physical copy sales are accounted for. And in the top 20 - only 3 games released by third-party developers.
Platform rankings - December 2024
The top 3 on PlayStation and Xbox by revenue are the same - Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Madden NFL 25, and EA Sports College Football 25. On Xbox, a newcomer appeared - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Marvel Rivals burst into the December PlayStation charts by MAU. The game took 3rd place on both platforms. On Xbox, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle also ranked 4th.
Mat Piscatella (Circana’s Executive Director, Video Games and segment analyst) showed an interesting comparison of the top MAU chart for December 2020 and 2024 on PlayStation. Look at how many major annual franchises are on the list.
Mat also showed the distribution by active users on PlayStation in December 2024 to demonstrate how difficult it is for new games to launch. "Your new soda didn't flop because the can was the wrong color or the ads weren't great. Your new soda flopped because Coke and Pepsi suffocated them.". The analyst notes that more than 60% of players in the US buy a new game once every six months - or less frequently.
The most successful games in December on Nintendo Switch are Super Mario Party Jamboree, Mario Kart 8, and Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
On Steam, the situation is much more vivid. Marvel Rivals is in 1st place by MAU, Path of Exile II is 3rd, Delta Force is 6th. Three newcomers!
