Six new releases immediately entered the top 10 best-selling games in the US by the end of August
With a slight delay, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella published statistics on the U.S. gaming market for August 2026. According to the data, Americans are purchasing new releases well, yet this does not prevent the overall spending from continuing to decline.
NBA 2K27
- In the last month of summer, U.S. residents spent a total of $4.26 billion on video games, gaming hardware, and gaming accessories. This is 9% less than in August 2025.
- Most consumer spending was on video games — $3.78 billion. However, this also showed the steepest decline of 10%.
- Piscatella specifically highlighted consumer spending on physical versions of games. According to his observations, they amounted to $738 million in August, which is 5% more compared to last year. This growth was achieved thanks to a phenomenal surge in spending on key cartridges for the Nintendo Switch 2 — these soared by 631%. Meanwhile, spending on other types of physical game versions (discs and standard cartridges) decreased.
- Expenditures on consoles and other equipment dropped by 3% to $302 million. Specifically, dollar sales of Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch 2 fell by 13%, while those of PlayStation 5 increased by 17%.
- In total, U.S. residents purchased 559 thousand units of gaming hardware in August — the worst figure since 2013, when 423 thousand units were sold in the States.
- However, spending on gaming accessories saw a slight increase of 3% to $176 million.
- The highest-grossing paid game in the U.S. for August was NBA 2K27. Although its full release was only on September 4, owners of the premium editions gained access to NBA 2K27 at the end of August.
- In total, six new releases made it into the August top 10 highest-grossing games, including Star Wars Zero Company and Big Walk.
- Nintendo Switch 2 was the top bestseller in August among consoles in terms of sales in both dollars and units. Meanwhile, the DualSense Midnight Black controller achieved the best dollar sales among gaming accessories in the U.S.
Top 10 Highest-Grossing Paid Games in the U.S. in August 2026
1. NBA 2K27^ (new release)
2. EA Sports Madden NFL 27* (new release)
3. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls^ (new release)
4. EA Sports Kickoff Bundle* (new release)
5. Star Wars Zero Company* (new release)
6. Halo: Campaign Evolved* (-)
7. Elden Ring^ (↑34)
8. Big Walk* (new release)
9. Mario Kart World* (↑10)
10. Splatoon Raiders* (↓3)
^ — Digital sales data obtained directly from publishers.
* — Digital sales data based on Circana's forecast.