U.S. video game spending grew 15% y/y in January, says Circana

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that projected total market spending on video game hardware, content and accessories in the U.S. grew 15% in January compared to a year ago, reaching $5.1B. The analyst noted that January 2024 was a 5-week period, while January 2023 was a 4-week period. A 15% increase in total projected spending on video game content drove the market’s overall gain. Growth in digital content spending across Console, PC and VR platforms, along with a 5% increase in mobile games spending led the way, according to Sensor Tower. “Palworld” was January’s biggest new release story, ranking 1st in monthly active users on Steam in the US during January according to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, while placing 3rd on Xbox platforms behind only “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty HQ.” Epic’s “Fortnite” once again led in monthly active users across both PlayStation 5 (SONY) and Xbox Series (MSFT) consoles, with “Call of Duty HQ” ranking 2nd across both platforms. January video game hardware spending fell 4% when compared to January 2023, to $378M. Growth in Xbox Series hardware dollar sales was unable to offset declines across other platforms. PlayStation 5 was the best-selling hardware platform of January 2024 in both units and dollars, with Switch (NTDOY) placing 2nd in unit sales and Xbox Series ranking at #2 in dollar sales. With 39 months in market, life-to-date unit sales of PlayStation 5 are now tracking 7% ahead of PlayStation 4’s pace, and 68% above that of PlayStation 3. Spending on video game accessories increased 45% when compared to January 2023, to $246 million. Gamepad spending increased by over 50% year-on-year. The PlayStation 5 Dual Sense Edge was the best-selling video game accessory of January in dollar sales. PlayStation Portal was shifted from the Hardware category to Accessories with January data. PlayStation Portal ranked 5th among video game accessories in consumer spending during January. Investors in Epic include Tencent (TCEHY), KKR (KKR), Disney (DIS), and Sony. Other publicly traded companies in the video game space include Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two (TTWO), Ubisoft (UBSFY), Sega (SGAMY), Capcom (CCOEY), and Bandai Namco (NCBDY).