Hardware sales at a seven-year high.
2018 has already been a huge year for video game sales, with US consumers reportedly spending $19.5 billion on video game-related products in the first six months of the year alone – a 40% increase on the first six months of 2017.
The news comes from the NPD Group (via Gamesindustry.biz), which reports that hardware sales are also at a seven-year high, totaling $1.7 billion in the first half of 2018. That’s seemingly thanks to an increased market for the Xbox One, as well as strong support for the Nintendo NES Classic and SNES Classic Editions.
Despite the strong growth from hardware sales, it’s video games that make up the bulk of the total, with $16.9 billion spent on software, subscriptions, DLC and microtransactions – a 43% increase on the same period last year. Mobile games saw the biggest growth, with casual games such as Candy Crush featuring alongside AAA titles like God of War and Far Cry 5.
In addition to hardware and video game sales, accessories have also seen a surge in growth, with a 41% increase on the same period last year. Sales of headsets and headphones have doubled, which the report indicates may be due to the success of more socially-inclined games such as Fortnite.
Mat Piscatella, NPD analyst, seems confident that the upward trend will continue through the remainder of 2018, indicating that the “strong line-up of titles set to be released” and the “continued strength in hardware and accessory spending” are expected to usher in further double-digit growth by the end of the year.
Matt Davidson is a freelance writer for IGN – he’s available on Twitter, if that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat.