2020 predicts record spending of $ 56.9 billion on US games | American Annual Report

Game sales in the United States hit new highs in 2020, with total spending reaching $ 56.9 billion. That’s a 27% year-over-year increase, according to the latest report from the tracking company NPD.

Software made up the vast majority (86%) of that figure, with spending on game content reaching $ 48.9 billion in 2020. This included physical and digital games, DLC and subscriptions on console platforms. , cloud, mobile, laptop, PC and VR. Software sales increased 26% compared to 2019.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the best-selling game of 2020, followed by another CoD title, Modern Warfare. This is the 12th consecutive year that the Call of Duty franchise has topped the annual US charts – a record. Animal Crossing: New Horizons reached # 3 for 2020.

“In 2020, [Animal Crossing: New Horizons] achieved the highest physical dollar sales for a game released by Nintendo in a calendar year since Wii Fit Plus in 2010, ”said NPD VG analyst Mat Piscatella.

As for exclusives, The Last of Us: Part II was the best-selling PlayStation exclusive of 2020 in the US and became the third best-selling Sony game of all time in the country, following in the footsteps of Spider-Man from Marvel and 2018. God of War.

But hardware has seen even greater growth than software, with console revenues reaching $ 5.3 billion last year, up 35% from $ 3.9 billion in 2019. Sales of hardware were at their highest level last year since $ 5.6 billion in 2011. 2011 was a big year for Xbox 360, with a number of major titles and the first year of the Kinect accessory – c t is also the year that saw the release of Nintendo 3DS.

It’s no surprise that the best-selling console of 2020 is the Nintendo Switch, followed by the PlayStation 5 by looking at the value rankings, and the PlayStation 4 by looking at the number of units moved.

“Annual dollar sales of Nintendo Switch hardware were the second highest for an individual platform in a single calendar year in US history,” said Piscatella. “Only the Nintendo Wii’s 2008 dollar sales were higher.”

Money spent on gaming accessories also rose 21% in 2020, to a total of $ 2.6 billion. Sony’s DualSense wireless controller was the best-selling game controller of 2020, while the Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon 70 black gaming headset for Xbox was the best-selling headset of the year.

The NPD report also highlighted the best sales for December 2020, with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War taking the top spot, followed by Cyberpunk 2077 (for which digital sales were not tracked, however) and Assassin’s Creed. Valhalla. Consumer spending broke records in December, reaching $ 7.7 billion, up 25% year-over-year.

Hardware sales in December rose 38% to $ 1.32 billion – the highest total for a December since 2013. The Nintendo Switch was also the best-selling platform for December.

Here are the 20 best games of 2020 (physical and digital) ranked in terms of dollar sales, data courtesy of NPD:

* Digital sales not included