The NPD Group have released their December 2018 and their 2018 overall statistics, and it seems that the gaming industry is flying in the United States!

The hardware revenue with peripherals (controllers, for example) hit 7.5 billion dollars, which is a 15% year-over-year increase. The software revenue is also up 18% year-over-year to 35.8 billion dollars. However, not everybody publishes their digital sales, which means that this figure could even be higher…

The annual spending on hardware/software/accessories/game cards is another +13% year-over-year, hitting 16.7 billion dollars. In December, it was 3.4 billion (+2%). With hardware, the spending is +8% in 2018 to 5.1 billion dollars, with the help of plug-and-play devices (the SNES Classic is a prime example). The throne for the best-selling and performing console is taken by the Nintendo Switch for 2018. It outsold the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. The accessory/game card spending in 2018 was 4.5 billion (an all-time high, and it’s a 33% increase over 2017). In December, it’s another record (+29%, 1 billion dollars). The best selling accessory in December was the Nintendo Switch Pro controller.

With software, the annual sales were 7% up to 7.1 billion dollars. The best selling game was Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018, beating Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII. In December, as we predicted, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold the best (beating the dollar sales record of Halo: Reach, setting a new launch month record). In 2018, Nintendo was the highest software revenue generating publisher.

Let’s take a look at the December and the 2018 overall charts. (One-star titles did not include digital sales. Two-star titles did not include PC sales.)

December 2018:

1.         Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
2.         Red Dead Redemption II
3.         Call of Duty Black Ops 4**
4.         Battlefield V**
5.         NBA2K19
6.         Mario Kart 8*
7.         Madden NFL 19**
8.         Super Mario Party*
9.         Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu*
10. Marvel’s Spider-Man

Overall 2018:

1.         Red Dead Redemption II
2.         Call of Duty: Black Ops 4**
3.         NBA2K19
4.         Madden NFL 19**
5.         Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
6.         Marvel’s Spider-Man
7.         Far Cry 5
8.         God of War
9.         Monster Hunter: World
10. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

So the gaming industry is in a good shape… and the streaming seems to be the future for it.

Source: GamesIndustry