US games revenue slumped 15 per cent in December

The American games market saw year-on-year decline in December.

According to research from US market trackers NPD, $2.78bn was made from hardware, physical and digital software, PC and accessories, a dip of 15 per cent on December 2015.

The biggest decline game from games hardware, which saw a 20 per cent fall from $1.24bn to $994.9m. NPD says that PS4 was the best-performing hardware for the month, with the Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End coming in at the best-selling SKU.

There was some positive news for other platforms, too. NPD says that Xbox One sales were in fact ten per cent up year-on-year, while 3DS hardware sales rose two per cent. This is the seventh month of 3DS growth, largely due to the cultural phenomenon that was Pokémon Go.

Console software revenue dipped 12 per cent, with $1.19bn generated, while PC software fell by a slightly larger 13 per cent to $45.8m. This follows a period where a number of major releases failed to sell as well as their predecessors – a trend the UK saw, too. 

Then there’s accessory and peripheral revenue, which saw a 15 per cent dip.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was the best-performing game of the month, coming in ahead of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XV.

Below is the software Top Ten for the month of December. It’s worth noting that Pokémon Sun and Moon charted at No.8 and No.10 respectively despite Nintendo not providing digital sales information for the duo. All other publishers in the Top Ten provided this information, so it’s entirely possible that the Pokémon games would have charted higher.

1. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Activision
2. Final Fantasy XV, Square Enix
3. Battlefield 1, EA
4. Madden NFL 17, EA
5. NBA 2K17, 2K Games
6. Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft
7. Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar
8. Pokémon Sun, Nintendo
9. FIFA 17, EA
10. Pokémon Moon, Nintendo