U.S. game sales down in February 2020

The NPD Group has reported the second month in a row of double-digit declines in-game sales in the US. The report shows an overall decline of 29 percent year-on-year, with revenues at $755 million for the month.

Within this decline, the group identified a drop of 36 percent in the software it tracks. This software includes both physical and digital sales from a number of select publishers. The software generated a total of $307 million for the month.

The core reason behind the decrease in sales, according to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella, is a lack of big releases for the month. Early 2019 saw the launch of Kingdom Hearts 3, Resident Evil 2 Remake, and Anthem, while this year hasn’t seen anything nearly as highly-anticipated.

In fact, the only new game in the top ten software chart was Dreams, a PlayStation 4 exclusive from Media Molecule. The game was the eighth best-selling for Sony’s platform.

The Division 2 saw a huge boost in sales over the last month or so. This doesn’t have anything to do with the comparison to a post-pandemic America. Ubisoft teased and released a new expansion for the game, Warlords of New York. In the lead up to the expansion’s release, the game was heavily discounted, driving sales up. The Division 2 moved up 20 places to claim fifth place in the month’s chart.

Hardware sales also suffered in February 2020. A total of $183 million was generated by game machine sales, with year-on-year declines across all platforms, and a drop in sales year-on-year of 34 percent.

Accessories and game cards sold far better than software and hardware did, as they did in January. The NPD Group reports a drop of 14 percent in sales year-on-year to $265 million. Finally, for the fourth month in a row, the Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller was the best-selling accessory.

The top 20 best-selling games in the US between the 2nd and 29th of February 2020 were as follows.