Circana: The US gaming market in January'25
It's declining on all fronts YoY, but it's 4 weeks versus 5 weeks in January'24.
Overall market condition
The market in January 2025 declined by 15% compared to January 2024 - to $4.513 billion.
Game sales fell by 12% - to $4.115 billion; gaming hardware sales dropped by 45% to $205 million; and accessory sales decreased by 28% to $194 million.
❗️BUT! The figures are for a 4-week period, while January 2024 accounted for 5 weeks. So it's not as bad as it seems.
Gaming hardware sales figures are the lowest since January 2020. PS5 sales fell by 38% YoY, Xbox Series S|X sales - by 50%, Nintendo Switch - by 53%. “It’s 4 weeks”, - you can say. But Matt draws attention to 2022 and 2023 (also 4-week periods). The console market is cyclical.
PlayStation 5 - the best-selling console of the month both in terms of revenue and number of systems. Xbox Series S|X is second in revenue, while Nintendo Switch is second in units sold.
PlayStation 5 Pro sales are lagging behind PlayStation 4 Pro sales dynamics.
49% of all PS5s sold in January in the US were digital. 88% of Xbox Series S|X sold had no disc drive.
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PlayStation Portal continues to be the best accessory in the US by dollar sales. In terms of numbers sold, DualSense Midnight Black leads.
Growing segments include non-mobile subscriptions (13% growth) and mobile game revenue (+2%). However, console content sales fell by 35% YoY (again, we're comparing 4 weeks to 5 weeks of January 2024).
Game sales
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - the best-selling game of the month. It's the sales leader on PlayStation, while on Xbox the game ranks 2nd. For MAU, the situation is reversed.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth showed good results on Steam. The game was released on January 23 on PC.
Donkey Kong Country Returns is the only new release of the month. The game climbed to 8th place (excluding digital copies).
Top revenue generators among mobile projects remain the same - MONOPOLY GO!, Royal Match, and ROBLOX.
Platform rankings
The PlayStation sales chart is stable. Xbox is a bit more interesting - for example, The Elder Scrolls: Online made to the list.
Looking at MAU in the US on consoles, Marvel Rivals' success is noteworthy - the game continues to successfully retain an active audience.
In January, the top 10 sales for Nintendo Switch unusually include many other publishers. Games from Ubisoft, SEGA, Warner Bros. Games, and EA made the list.
Marvel Rivals - Steam's MAU leader in January 2024 in the US. It's surprising how different the platform audience's tastes are from console players.
