31.05.2024

Xbox Series lags behind Xbox One and Xbox 360 in US sales on time aligned basis, according to Circana

Circana is back with its monthly report on the US games market. Here is a quick look at the best-selling products, including how the sales of Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 compare to their predecessors.

Life-to-date US sales of Xbox Series X|S lag behind Xbox One and 360 on time aligned basis

Console spending experienced a huge decline in April

According to Circana’s Mat Piscatella, US consumers spent $208 million on video game hardware last month, down 43% year-over-year. The decline was at least 26% across all current-gen consoles, with Nintendo Switch sales down 69% from the same period last year.

PlayStation 5 remained the leader in both unit and dollar sales, while Switch ranked 2nd in unit sales and Xbox Series X|S was 2nd in dollars.

Piscatella noted that “[hardware] declines this year are steeper than I’d expected.” He also shared some data on life-to-date PS5 and Xbox Series X|S sales compared to previous generations over the similar period of their life cycle:

  • PlayStation 5 is currently 8% ahead of PS4 in terms of US unit sales;
  • Xbox Series X|S lags Xbox One by 13% and “remains slightly behind” Xbox 360.

“Xbox One had a strong start with a not great finish, while Xbox 360 had a decent start with an amazing finish,” the analyst explained. “We’ll see what happens with XBS this holiday.”

Other data on the US games market for April 2024

  • Last month, US consumers spent almost $4.1 billion on video game content, hardware, and accessories, down 3% year-over-year.
  • As mentioned above, hardware sales experienced the biggest decline, while spending on accessories fell 4% year-over-year to $152 million.
  • Sales of video games, including DLC, in-app purchases, and subscriptions grew 2% year-over-year to $3.73 billion. The growth was driven by mobile, with “gains from this segment offsetting a 24% year-on-year dip in content spending on Console platforms.”

  • Stellar Blade became the best-selling premium game in the US last month. Despite its chart-topping debut, Piscatella noted that the title “did have the lowest sales to lead an April since Prototype 2 ranked 1st in April 2012.”
  • Shift Up’s action game was the only new premium release to chart in the top 20 last month, also ranking as the 16th best-selling game of 2024 year-to-date.
  • Helldivers 2 remains the number one premium title of the year in terms of dollar sales. The top 10 didn’t change much from March, but Sea of Thieves jumped 24 positions to #18 thanks to its release on PlayStation.
  • Sea of Thieves also ranked as the 4th best-selling premium title in April, while Grounded (another Xbox title ported to PlayStation) rose 155 positions to #12.

  • The Fallout franchise experienced a huge surge in sales last month, driven by the popularity of Amazon’s TV show. Fallout 4 climbed from 87th to 5th place, followed by Fallout 76 (#8, ↑151), Fallout: New Vegas (#24, ↑169), and Fallout 3 (#37, ↑279).

  • Mobile game spending grew 12% year-over-year, led by the strong performance of Monopoly Go!, Royal Match, and Candy Crush Saga. Other titles in the top 10 were Roblox, Last War: Survival, Coin Master, Whiteout Survival, Township, Evony, and Clash of Clans.
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