The video game market in the US is showing signs of decline, a report from market research firm NPD shows. Spending on video games fell by $1.78 billion year-on-year during the second quarter (Q2).
Consumers in the United States spent a total of $12.35 billion on video game products during Q2, down 13 percent from the same period in 2021. It seems the problem is affecting the three giants of the industry, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.
Earlier this week, Sony said it was expecting slower results for its PlayStation division. This came after the company reported software sales were down a sizeable 26 percent year-on-year. Sony says the slump comes from a lack of major exclusive PlayStation games compared to 2021, while people are spending less time playing.
It is not much better for Microsoft, with the last quarter showing a 11 percent drop in Xbox hardware revenue compared to last year. Furthermore, the company has also seen a drop in Xbox content and services revenue, which has fallen 6 percent. Microsoft also says its overall gaming division has declined by 7 percent.
Wider Issues
Nintendo will announce its fiscal first-quarter results today, but forecasts from the company suggest a decline in Switch console sales. The company is forecasting 21 million unit sales for the fiscal year, down from 23.1 million last year.
NPD says the only area of gaming that got a boost last quarter was subscription content, which “was the only segment to post positive gains.”
While each company will post its own reasons why the market is declining, there are some clear factors in play. The new generation of consoles led by the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles is maturing. Demand is still high for the consoles but it stands to reason that two years after release sales will stabilise.
It can also not be ignored that 2021 was a year in which we were very much still in the pandemic. People were home more and more likely to be gaming and spending money on games.
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