US consumers spent record amounts on video games in 2020, NPD reports

Spending on video games set a new high of $ 56.9 billion in 2020 in the United States, according to a new NPD Group report, a 27% increase from 2019. Hardware spending reached its highest level since 2011 at $ 5.3 billion, a 35% increase from 2019. NPD ranks video game spending as l money spent in retail stores and digital storefronts on “video game hardware and content, and accessories.”

While last year saw the release of the PS5 and new Xbox consoles, it was Nintendo’s Switch that took home the crown as the best-selling platform during the year. It was number one in terms of dollar sales and units sold. The PS5 was the second best-selling console in terms of dollar sales, while the PS4 was in second place in terms of units sold.

Nintendo was also dominant in software, releasing 10 of the 20 best-selling games of the year. However, the top two best-selling games were both Call of Duty, with Black Ops: Cold War in first place and in 2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in second place. Mat Piscatella of NPD notes that the Call of Duty The franchise has now been the best-selling game franchise in the United States for 12 consecutive years.

It shouldn’t be surprising that people spent a lot of money on some form of mostly home entertainment in the same year as a global pandemic, especially when it coincided with the launch of new consoles. The surge in video game spending was apparent as early as July, when the NPD Group announced that U.S. spending on video games hit a 10-year high in June.