The month of May saw record sales for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch alike- which was bizarre, because it wasn’t necessarily a month for big releases for any of the three consoles. Yes, PS4 saw the release of Detroit: Become Human, Xbox One saw State of Decay 2, and Nintendo saw Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition, but all those are mid-tier releases
So what happened? Speaking to GamingBolt, NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella mentioned that Fortnite in particular continues to be a major driver for PS4 and Xbox One.
“Fortnite is certainly having an impact on PS4 and Xbox One Hardware, Accessory and Game Card sales,” he said. We also have games like God of War and Detroit boosting PS4 while the new services like Xbox Game Pass are likely contributing to Xbox One growth. As for Switch, it is only one comparative month, and last year’s May was supply constrained, so not sure there’s much to take away here. June may be more telling for Switch with the Fortnite announcement and the trade in deals that were happening around E3 at GameStop.”
I absolutely agree that June should be a far more interesting month than May was- E3 went well for Microsoft, but not as well for Sony or Nintendo, but the volume of certain announcements, such as Smash or Fortnite, was louder than others, not to mention the trade in deals- how this plays out in the market in the coming months should be interesting to see.