Worldwide digital games market report for November 2019

SuperData has released its report for the worldwide digital games market for November 2019, showing that consumer spending across all games reached $9.5 billion.

The combined spending on games digitally over PC, console, and mobile was up for the month by 7 percent year-on-year. This figure contained a 20 percent increase year-on-year for mobile spending, which represented $5.58 billion of worldwide revenue, 59 percent of it in total.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order released to the best franchise console launch of all time. The game outsold the previous release to hold this title, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, selling over two copies for every one of Battlefront 2 with a total of 2.14 million digital units for November. It’s thought that increased consumer awareness thanks to the TV series The Mandalorian, and the latest movie in the franchise, Star Wars Episode 9 The Rise of Skywalker, have aided these sales, as well as the return to a single player game.

Red Dead Redemption 2 sold only 408,000 units in the first month of release as an Epic Game store exclusive. This is a poor comparison to how well other Epic Game Store exclusives have sold, like Borderlands 3, a game that sold 1.78 million copies in its first month on the platform.

A continued decline was seen in the console free-to-play market, with a 41 percent drop year-on-year. Globally, free-to-play console games fell to $84.7 million for November, which is mostly caused by the month-by-month fall in interest in Fortnite, particularly after a record breaking year in 2018. Even though the game has seen a steep decline in interest, it still generated 51 percent of its year-to-date revenue for this year.

Pokemon Sword and Shield rose to become the top selling Nintendo game for the year. The games sold 2.72 million copies in the month of launch, smashing other Nintendo first-party exclusives such as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion 3. The games are set to become Nintendo’s best sellers for the Christmas period, especially since Nintendo Switch sales still aren’t waning.