NPD: In January, American gamers spent $4.71 billion on games

In January, spending on video games in the United States amounted to $4.71 billion, according to the analytical company NPD Group. As for individual games, Cyberpunk 2077 dropped 16 positions in the chart at once, but the last Call of Duty managed to enter the top 20 best-selling titles in history.General data

Note: By spending on video games, NPD means buying games, hardware, and accessories.

The company does not disclose data on the number of devices sold, and Sensor Tower provides it with information on the mobile market.

• Total spending on video games last month amounted to $4.71 billion, which is 42% more in annual terms.Console sales showed the largest increase — $319 million (an increase of 144% in annual terms).
• This was influenced by both the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, as well as the continued demand for the Nintendo Switch.Switch became the leader of the month in terms of the number of copies sold (the best result in January since 2010, when the Wii was the leader), and Sony earned the most on PS5 sales in dollar terms (broke the Wii record for January 2009).
• American users spent $4.17 billion on content (an increase of 36% year-on-year).
• This includes purchases of games for consoles, PCs and mobile devices, as well as subscription and cloud services.Accessory sales have also grown significantly.
• In January, Americans spent $222 million on this category of goods (an increase of 73% in annual terms).Data on individual games

Note: NPD collects information about sales of physical copies directly from retailers, and publishers provide data on the “figure”.

At the same time, some companies prefer not to disclose information about digital sales to analysts. It is also important to know that NPD charts take into account sales revenue (without in-game purchases), and not the total number of copies.

• The leader of the chart for the third month in a row remains Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The Activision project also became the best-selling title of the year and got to the 20th place in the list of the best-selling games in the history of the American market (NPD has been keeping records since 1995).Assassin’s Creed Valhalla took the second line of the January chart.
• The game is now the second fastest-selling title of the franchise, second only to Assassin’s Creed III.Cyberpunk 2077 lost the most positions, dropping from second to 18th place in a month.
• It is worth noting that in the case of the CD Projekt game, only physical sales are taken into account. Plus, the project has not been available on PlayStation for a long time due to the problems of the version for the base consoles of the last generation.