June saw a significant bump in spending growth across the video games industry, led by Final Fantasy 16, Diablo 4, and strong hardware sales. Mat Piscatella, executive director of Circana, formerly NPD, said sales totals in software, hardware, and accessories reached $4.7 billion. That’s a nine percent increase over spending in June 2022 and makes June 2023 the second most profitable June on record.
Hardware spending increased 28 percent compared to last year at the same time for a total of $454 million, and the PS5 continues its streak as the year’s best-selling console.
Diablo 4 took the top spot on the software charts, with Final Fantasy 16 in second place, and Street Fighter 6 close behind. These knocked Tears of the Kingdom to fourth place from its top spot in May and put Jedi Survivor in seventh, following its stint in the top three the previous month.
June 2023 US Video Game Market Highlights from Circana – June 2023 U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories reached $4.7B, a 9% increase vs YA. It was the 2nd highest spending ever achieved in a June month, trailing only June 2021’s $4.8B. pic.twitter.com/lZ8IceiZaJ
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 2, 2023
Other notables on the chart include Spider-Man Miles Morales, which jumped up to ninth place from its previous position in 31st, helped no doubt by the announcement of Spider-Man 2’s release date during Summer Game Fest. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life debuted at number 17 and pushed God of War Ragnarok down to 18th.
On the yearly sales charts, Tears of the Kingdom remains in second place, with Diablo 4 entering at number three. Final Fantasy 16 landed at ninth place and Street Fighter 6 in 10th. Piscatella said Street Fighter 6’s launch sales were double those of Street Fighter 5.
Candy Crush Saga, unsurprisingly, remains one of the best-performing mobile games, though Genshin Impact has dropped off the top 10 list for the time being. That’s perhaps understandable, as the latest round of updates introduced no new characters.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF