SuperData: In June, players spent $10.46 billion on digital versions of games

Seasonal sales growth and coronavirus have made June a fruitful month for the gaming industry, SuperData reports in a recent review. It brought in 3% more revenue than May ($10.2 billion) and 9% more than last year’s June ($9.6 billion).

For this, we need to thank mobile: segment revenue has reached a record high. But sales of digital copies on PC and consoles decreased compared to the March peak. SuperData does not specify specific figures.

Mobile, according to SuperData, traditionally receives a “sales boost” in the summer. This time it was reinforced by the pandemic situation: because of it, the players did not have many options for entertainment.

What about individual projects?

• initial digital sales of The Last of Us Part 2 amounted to 2.8 million copies. This is more than it was at the start of Marvel’s Spider-Man (2.2 million copies sold in digital in September 2018) and Final Fantasy VII Remake (2.2 million copies sold in March 2020). More than two thirds of the launch sales of The Last of Us Part 2 were for pre-orders;
• The launch of Valorant from Riot Games has become the largest in the history of the fritupley PC market. The initial sales and audience of the game turned out to be higher than those of Apex Legends on PC a year earlier.
• and who exactly was not happy about the appearance of Valorant, so it’s CS:GO: the number of users and the level of income it has noticeably decreased for the second month in a row. This was influenced by the May launch of the open testing of the shooter from Riot Games and its start of sales in June;
• Destiny 2 is doing well, with revenue peaking since October 2019. The main driver of growth is the start of pre—sales of the Beyond Light supplement and the new season. It was thanks to them that the revenue of the game jumped by 221% in June, and the number of players jumped to record levels (an increase of 45% compared to June 2019);
• For the first time in its history, Nintendo has released a paid Isle of Armor add-on to the game under the Pokémon brand. The strategy turned out to be correct: thanks to this, the digital revenue of Pokémon Sword and Shield reached its maximum since the release month;
• but the console Grand Theft Auto V revenue fell by 33%. The lack of major updates could affect the level of interest in the game. The last of them, The Diamond Casino Heist, was released back in December 2019.

Also on the topic:

• SuperData: $10 billion was spent on digital versions of games in MarchSuperData: $10.5 billion was spent on digital versions of games in April
• SuperData: in May, players bought digital versions of games for $ 10.2 billion
• Is there any news?