Ekaterina Bespyatova

NPD: Video game spending in the US reached a record high in the third quarter

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The earnings of the American gaming market have again updated the historical maximum. In the third quarter, US gamers spent $11.2 billion on games, hardware and accessories. One of the most popular purchases was the Nintendo Switch — in three months, players bought as many copies of the console as no other platform in the states has sold yet.


The report on the results of the third quarter of 2020 (July-September) was prepared by The NPD Group. Industry expert Mat Piscatella shared some data.

The overall picture of the market

  • The main figure of the report was $11.2 billion. That’s how much the American gaming market generated in the third quarter of 2020.
  • The largest revenue was collected directly by video games and related content — $10.04 billion. Sales increased by 24% compared to last year, and growth was noted in several categories at once: physical software, digital, subscriptions and mobile.
  • But the most growing segment of the American gaming market has become gaming accessories. Their sales increased by 35% compared to the third quarter of 2019. Analysts did not name the exact amount of income.
  • The growth of iron sales amounted to 16% in annual terms. Data on the revenue of the NPD segment was also not provided.

Consoles and Games

  • Another record of the quarter was sales of the Nintendo Switch. They turned out to be higher than any other console for the entire time of observations by NPD analysts (since the third quarter of 2009).
  • The Xbox Elite Series 2 wireless gamepad was the most purchased accessory between July and September 2020.
  • NBA 2K21 became the highest-grossing game of the quarter, if we talk about sales in dollars and excluding DLC/microtransactions.
  • Another hit of July-September 2020 was Among Us. The title took seventh place in the number of console and PC players. 69% of users were under the age of 24;
  • The list of other popular games of the reporting period included Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Fortnite, Ghost of Tsushima, Madden NFL 21, Marvel’s Avengers, Minecraft, Paper Mario: The Origami King, Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.

“We continue to see more and more players playing more and more games on more and more devices,” Piscatella writes. “Probably, the fourth quarter will show us another record, largely due to the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles and the success of the Nintendo Switch, the best-selling console in US history.”

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