SuperData: $10 billion was spent on digital versions of games in March

Analysts from SuperData summed up the results of last month in digital retail. According to their estimates, its growth in annual terms amounted to 11%, reaching $10 billion (a year earlier it was about $ 9 billion).

Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The current $10 billion is a record amount for March,” the document says.

In the same place, the situation with the coronavirus is called the reason for the growth. Due to self-isolation, people in March more often began to turn to games as a source of entertainment. As a result, sales have grown significantly:

• revenue from premium games for consoles increased by 64% on a monthly basis — from $883 million to $1.5 billion;
• revenue from premium PC games in March also jumped relative to February, but by 56% — from $362 million to $567 million;
• revenue from mobile games showed a less impressive growth of 15%, amounting to $ 5.7 billion (there were some incidents: Pokémon GO, previously designed for playing outside the home, developed $ 111 million during the emergency, 18% more than a month earlier).

What SuperData highlighted

• The best- selling title of the month was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In one month, 5 million digital copies of the game were purchased. This is a record. Previously, no game in the history of consoles has diverged in numbers in such a circulation for a month. This is more than Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 showed in 2018 and exceeds the total sales of Super Smash Bros. Ultimat e and Pokémon Sword and Shield in the debut months for the games.

• Call of Duty: Warzone has a unique position in the market. On the one hand, it is an additional mode of premium Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. On the other hand, it simultaneously spreads as a free-play game. In any case, the Warzone and Modern Warfare metrics count together. And so, according to the data obtained by SupeData, after the release Warzone Call of Duty: Modern Warfare experienced a 159% increase in the active monthly audience. In total, 62.7 million people played the game in March.
• Digital sales of Doom Eternal in March amounted to 3 million — three times more than the circulation of Doom sold in the first month (2016). This is a success, but analysts say that the game will not have a long tail of sales, because, firstly, the game is focused on a single passage, and secondly, it does not have the opportunity to buy additional content for real money.
• During the first month of sales, Half-Life: Alyx sold 860 thousand copies. In total, the game earned about $ 40.7 million. According to SuperData, by AAA standards – an average result, but from the point of view of the VR market — a tremendous success.  By the way, for the first time in the history of the VR project entered the top 10 best-selling games for personal computers.

Also on the topic:

• SuperData: $9.2 billion was spent on digital versions of games in FebruarySuperData: In January, players spent $9.4 billion on digital versions of games
• SuperData: in December, the digital gaming market earned $9.8 billion
• Is there any news?