Circana: The US gaming market in January 2024 grew by 15%
Numbers are positive, but the real reason behind it is the amount of weeks counted.
Overall market condition
American users spent $5.069 billion on games in January 2024. This is 15% more than the previous year, but there is a nuance - in 2023 there were 4 weeks in the month, and in 2024 there were 5.
Users spent more on games on consoles, PC, and VR in January 2024. Revenue from mobile games grew by 5%.
Console sales in the USA in January 2024 amounted to $378 million. A decrease compared to January 2023 was 4%.
PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in January 2024; Nintendo Switch came in second. Xbox Series increased its dollar sales but remained in third place.
After 39 weeks of sales, PS5 in the USA sells 7% better than PS4 and 68% better than PS3.
Accessory sales in January amounted to $246 million - 45% more than the previous year. Spending on gamepads grew the most (by 50%), with DualSense Edge being the best-selling accessory.
PlayStation Portal continues to sell actively, but Matt Piscatella notes that production volumes are not very high.
Game sales
5 new projects appeared in the top 20 by sales in January. Tekken 8 ranked second; Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ranked third; Persona 3: Reload ranked fourth; Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth ranked 7th; Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown ranked 13th; Juijutsu Kaiden: Cursed Clash ranked 19th.
On PlayStation, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III topped the sales chart. Tekken 8 came in second; Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League came in third.
Gran Turismo 7 became the second best-selling game in the series in the USA. Currently, it is only surpassed by Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.
In January, the unchanged leaders in MAU on PS5 are Fortnite; games from the Call of Duty series and GTA V.
Evil West, thanks to being added to PlayStation Plus, took the 7th position in MAU.
On Xbox, the picture is similar, with Palworld taking third place.
Interestingly, Palworld is not in the sales charts on Xbox - apparently, a large portion of people took the game in Game Pass. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is at the top of the sales chart, Madden NFL 24 is second, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is third.
Sales on Nintendo remain stable. Super Mario Bros. Wonder leads, Hogwarts Legacy is in second place, and Mario Kart 8 is in third.
On Steam, Palworld is in first place in MAU. Lethal Company is in second place, Counter-Strike 2 is third. It's surprising that Baldur’s Gate III - without multiplayer functionality - maintains the fourth position.
Sensor Tower notes that MONOPOLY GO!, Royal Match, and Roblox continue to lead in revenue in the USA. Among the newcomers to the top 10 in January are Township and Whiteout Survival.