The video game market research company NPD Group releases statistics about sales figures every month that often lead to interesting insights. For example, NPD Group found that console sales have fallen significantly for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began in its analysis for June 2020, yet overall spending on hardware, software, accessories, and games has reached its highest point in over 10 years.
Over $1.2 billion was spent on these items in the U.S. last month, according to NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella. This number is up 26 percent from the less-than $1 billion marker hit in June 2019 and is the closest year to approaching the $1.3 billion record set in June 2009. The top 10 selling games of June 2020 were headlined by The Last of Us 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Naughty Dog's long-anticipated sequel is overall the second biggest launch for a game published by Sony since Marvel's Spider-Man in 2018 according to Piscatella and the NPD Group, immediately becoming the third best-selling game of the year. This following up on the continued success of New Horizons, one of the fastest-selling Nintendo games ever, paints a good picture why last month was so successful as much of the world continues to be stuck at home due to the pandemic.
The extra free time afforded to many as a result of the pandemic has likely contributed to the spike in sales over recent months, but it has also affected the amount of time people have been playing games. Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Siege saw a record number of players in June 2020, and services such as Discord have expanded their server capacities to keep up with a heightened demand.
However, the pandemic may have more long-term consequences on what new games become available going forward. According to a recent survey put out by the Game Developers Conference ahead of its digital-only summer convention, one third of 2,500 developers say they have delayed games since COVID-19 became a widespread concern, particularly as work from home policies are more common.
For now, heightened sales numbers should be a breath of fresh air for the industry as work environments fluctuate due to world events. Piscatella said software sales were 49 percent higher in June 2020 than June 2019, so it should be interesting to see how that carries into July with games like Paper Mario: The Origami King hitting shelves.