NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella shared his forecasts for the American video game industry for the fourth quarter of 2021. He expects that the problems with the supply of consoles will continue, the costs of gamers will increase, and Call of Duty: Vanguard will become a bestseller.
Call of Duty: Vanguard
Piscatella began to sum up the results of the outgoing year.
The analyst believes that from October to December 2021, spending by American gamers on gaming content, devices and accessories will increase by 3% compared to the end of 2020. The total spending of Americans on games for the quarter will reach $18.9 billion.
Piscatella also predicts that the total amount of gaming sales in the United States in 2021 will reach $61.7 billion, which is 10% more than last year.
Other forecasts:
- the market will continue to be affected by the shortage of components and the associated delay in the supply of consoles: the shortage of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series will continue until the end of 2021;The PlayStation 5 will remain the highest-grossing console in the US, however, in terms of the number of devices sold, it will be overtaken by the Nintendo Switch, which is much cheaper;
- despite the problems with components, 2021 may set records for sales of gaming equipment, accessories and game content (this is evidenced by the growth of each of the segments – by 49%, 12% and 11%, respectively — from January to August this year).
- it is also worth waiting for an increase in revenue during the Christmas period for mobile games and the subscription segment (in the first eight months alone, Americans’ spending on mobile games increased by 10%, and subscriptions by 7%);
- the driver of revenue growth from subscriptions should be Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5, which will be released as part of the Xbox Game Pass;
- Call of Duty: Vanguard, whose release is scheduled for November 5, is likely to become the best-selling game of the month in the US (for 13 years in a row, every game in the series has been at the top of the top);
- Matt believes that Call of Duty: Vanguard can also become one of the best-selling games of the year.
- The only real competitor of the title, he sees the remaster of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, whose date of appearance is still unknown.
On Twitter, Piscatella announced the release of monthly reports on the American gaming market until the end of 2021.
The results for September will be released on Monday, October 18.