Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: December 11 - December 15 (2023)
Circana was forced to lower the 2023 US market projections due to the very weak November; Alan Wake II on consoles are yet to reach 1M in sales despite the great press.
Reports of this week:
Newzoo: Comparison of Launches of EA Sports FC 24 and FIFA 23
Google: The most popular games in Search in 2023
GSD & GfK: Call of Duty was unable to save the British market from decline in November 2023
Famitsu: Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope - the best-selling game in Japan in November
Tenjin & ObtainAds: How to make your advertising creatives more effective
Circana: The American Gaming Market Declined by 7% in November
Ampere Analysis: Alan Wake II console sales less than 1M copies
Newzoo: Comparison of Launches of EA Sports FC 24 and FIFA 23
FIFA 23 was released on September 30, 2022; for comparison, Newzoo took October 2022. EA Sports FC 24 started on September 28, 2023; for comparison, October 2023 was considered.
In the month following the release, FIFA 23 ranked 38th in MAU on PC and 7th on consoles. EA Sports FC 24 performed better - 23rd place on PC and 5th place on consoles.
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Both games took the second position in MAU among sports games on PC and consoles in the first full month after release. They were only surpassed by Rocket League.
8.8% of all players on PC and consoles played EA Sports FC 24 in October 2023 - they spent an average of 38.1 hours (per month) in the game. In October 2022, 6.7% of the monthly audience played FIFA 23, and they played for 36 hours. Newzoo does not provide absolute MAU figures, but the engagement in hours for EA Sports FC 24 is higher.
In October 2023, EA Sports FC 24 accumulated 53.7 million hours on streaming platforms. In October 2022, FIFA 23 had 64.6 million hours.
Both EA Sports FC 24 and FIFA 23, in the first full month after release, became the second best-selling games in the USA and the UK on PC and consoles.
Over half of the players in EA Sports FC 24 (and FIFA 23) also play Fortnite.
Google: The most popular games in Search in 2023
Hogwarts Legacy - the leader in the number of Google search queries among games this year.
In second place is The Last of Us. However, people were likely searching for the series rather than the game.
The third place in popularity goes to Connections - a word game from The New York Times.
Battlegrounds Mobile India - through the efforts of one country - took the fourth place.
Baldur’s Gate 3 entered the top (6th position), surpassing Diablo IV (8th place).
One of the most interesting search trends is スイカ ゲーム (Google translates it as "Watermelon Game"). A game with this name ranked seventh in searches (higher than Diablo IV, Atomic Heart, and Sons of the Forest). In terms of mechanics, it's like Tetris blended with 2048, but instead of geometric shapes, there are round fruits. There is also a simple physics model. You can play it here: https://suika-game.app
GSD & GfK: Call of Duty was unable to save the British market from decline in November 2023
Analytical platforms report only the actual sales figures obtained directly from partners. Large publishers, such as Nintendo, do not share information on the sales of digital copies.
Game sales
In the UK, 4.55 million games were sold in November, which is 3% less than the previous year. In November 2022, God of War: Ragnarok and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet were released.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 led sales in November. However, the game started 38% worse than the previous installment.
Hogwarts Legacy was released on Nintendo Switch, allowing it to grow sales in the British market by 100%.
EA Sports FC 24 sold slightly worse than FIFA 23 in November of the previous year, but the difference is insignificant.
Black Friday Results
During Black Friday in the UK, 1.66 million copies of games were sold, which is 0.8% more than the previous year.
EA Sports FC 24 became the best-selling game in the UK on this Black Friday.
Console Sales
Over 486 thousand consoles were sold in November in the UK, showing a 176% increase compared to the previous month and a 32% increase compared to the previous November. This was due to console discounts.
As of the end of November, console sales in the UK increased by 12% compared to the same period the previous year.
PlayStation 5 sales soared by 149% in comparison to October and by 126% compared to November of the previous year. In fact, it was the first real Black Friday for the console, as previous ones were hindered by shortages.
Xbox Series S|X also had successful sales. The consoles sold 231% better than the previous month and 4% better than the previous year.
Nintendo Switch sold 175% better than in October, but by November 2022, there was a 19% decline.
In November, 1.275 million accessories were sold, which is 118% more than in October and 3.5% less than the previous year.
PlayStation Portal debuted at 5th place in the chart. In the UK, the accessory is sold out.
Famitsu: Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope - the best-selling game in Japan in November
Famitsu only shares physical sales data.
Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope - a new game from Konami, reminiscent of Monopoly, topped the sales charts. The game was released on November 16th and sold 413 thousand (physical) copies in just a couple of weeks.
In second place for sales was Super Mario RPG (356 thousand copies); in third place was Super Mario Bros. Wonder (287 thousand copies).
Nintendo sold 964 thousand copies of games in Japan in November. This is twice as much as Konami (438.5 thousand) and SEGA (178 thousand).
In November, 296 thousand Nintendo Switch units and 231 thousand PlayStation 5 units were sold. The sales of the latter increased by 80% compared to the previous year.
Tenjin & ObtainAds: How to make your advertising creatives more effective
This report is based on the analysis of 7 million creatives.
The state of the gaming advertising market in 2023
The number of ad impressions increased by 17%.
The number of clicks decreased by 7%.
The average CTR decreased by 3%.
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The number of installations from paid advertising channels decreased by 6%.
Methods to improve advertising creative performance
Styling Creatives for Holidays. This allows extending the life of successful creatives and giving a new lease of life to those who have shown weak results.
Static Content in Videos. Tenjin & ObtainAds recommend transforming static ad creatives into videos - watched by 79% of users. Just add simple animations and a soundtrack.
Captions. Voodoo, Lion Studios, and Rollic Games use subtitles in their creatives. They either provide additional context or comment on what is happening on the screen.
Hooks. Tenjin and ObtainAds recommend starting ads with an engaging action, a video designed to keep the player on the screen.
Overlays. Companies believe that the most effective method is to use CTA buttons, progress bars, and timers.
User-Generated Content (UGC). According to Tenjin and ObtainAds, ads with UGC outperform by up to 4 times in CTR and have half the CPC. One of the most popular formats is the player or blogger's reaction to what is happening on the screen.
Circana: The American Gaming Market Declined by 7% in November
Market Overview
In November 2023, the American gaming market earned $5.9 billion, which is 7% less than the previous year.
The decline is attributed to a 3% drop in-game sales and a 24% decrease in console sales (down to $964 million).
Despite the decline, the PlayStation 5 remains the best-selling console of the month, followed by the Xbox Series.
PlayStation Portal debuted at the 4th position in console sales charts, with limited availability.
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Cumulative Nintendo Switch sales in the USA surpassed Xbox 360. The console now trails only Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 in sales.
Overall console sales decreased by 1% compared to the same period in 2022 (January - November).
Console game sales and portable system sales dropped by 11%, but revenue from mobile platforms, subscriptions, and PC content increased by 3%.
Mobile revenue in the USA grew by 2.6% in November compared to the previous year. The leaders are Monopoly GO!, Royal Match, and Roblox.
As of the end of November, the American gaming market is 1% ahead of the 2022 figures.
Game Sales
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (as expected) became the best-selling game on PC and consoles in the USA. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 secured the second spot, followed by Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy retained its position as the top-selling game in the USA in 2023. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III took the second spot, while The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dropped to third place. Note that there is no data on digital sales for the latter.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III marks the fifth consecutive installment in the series to top the charts in November. The last time the series was surpassed was by Red Dead Redemption II in November 2018.
MAU Charts
Fortnite, Call of Duty (all parts), and Marvel’s Spider-Man are the most popular games on PlayStation by MAU.
Fortnite, Call of Duty (all parts), and Grand Theft Auto V lead in MAU on Xbox in November.
Counter-Strike 2, Lethal Company, and Baldur’s Gate III are the top three in MAU on Steam.
Accessories
Accessory sales in November 2023 grew by 3% compared to the previous year, reaching $303 million. Spending on gamepads increased by 8%, with the DualSense (in Midnight Black) leading in sales.
Ampere Analysis: Alan Wake II console sales less than 1M copies
Pierce Harding-Rolls' Estimate (Ampere Analysis analyst) mentioned that 850 thousand copies of the game were sold as of the end of November. This figure represents only console sales.
However, Pierce notes that sales of Alan Wake: Remastered significantly increased in October-November of this year.
Circana indirectly confirms Ampere Analysis' data. According to their information, Alan Wake II did not make it into the top 100 for active players in the USA in November on either PlayStation or Xbox.
Matt Piscatella from Circana believes that two things could have helped the game: physical releases and more advertising. Although, according to estimates from Finnish media, they could have spent around $70 million on the project's advertising.
Nevertheless, labeling it a failure is at least premature. Analytical companies do not have access to sales figures on EGS, where a significant number of purchases could have occurred. Moreover, according to Remedy's standards, the initial sales are good. The same applies to Control, which sold 3 million copies in three years.
In 2015, it was reported that the first part of Alan Wake sold 3.2 million copies on all platforms, five years after its release.