2021 was the best year for the US gaming market in terms of turnover. NPD Group analysts estimate that last year Americans spent $60.4 billion on video games, hardware and accessories — more than ever before. The best-selling game was Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Key data
- The total market turnover increased by 8% compared to 2020.
- Americans spent the most on console, mobile and PC games, as well as on cloud services and subscriptions – $51.7 billion. Growth by 7% in annual terms.
- Sales of gaming hardware increased by 14% and reached $6.05 billion. The Nintendo Switch became the best-selling console of the year in the United States both in terms of the number of devices sold and revenue in dollars.
- As for accessories, their sales for 2021 amounted to $2.65 billion. This is 2% more compared to 2020. The white DualSense wireless controller was sold best in the States.
- Separately, analyst Mat Piscatella from NPD Group summed up the results of December for the US gaming market. Over the last month of 2021, Americans spent $7.5 billion on video games, hardware and accessories — 1% less than at the same time a year ago. Sales of the games themselves and related content were also the most monetary ($5.73 billion).
Top 20 best-selling games of the year
Important: NPD Group tracks sales of physical copies from retailers and receives data on the “figure” from publishers. But not all companies provide information. For example, Nintendo does not disclose digital sales of exclusives, and Activision Blizzard does not share information from Battle.net .
The rating is also based on net sales of games (without microtransactions and subscriptions). An asterisk marks titles in which digital sales were not taken into account. And the familiar ones are titles that did not take into account sales in the “figure” on Xbox.
- 1) Call of Duty: Vanguard
- 2) Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War
- 3) Madden NFL 22
- 4) Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl*
- 5) Battlefield 2042
- 6) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- 7) Mario Kart 8*
- 8) Resident Evil: Village
- 9) MLB: The Show 21^
- 10) Super Mario 3D World*
- 11) Far Cry 6
- 12) FIFA 22
- 13) Minecraft
- 14) Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
- 15) NBA 2K22*
- 16) Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
- 17) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- 18) Back 4 Blood
- 19) Mortal Kombat 11
- 20) Forza Horizon 5