While various new titles performed well in the United States in February, video game hardware spending is a different story. Circana analyst and executive director Mat Piscatella reveals that it fell to $256 million, a 25 percent drop and the lowest for the month since February 2020 ($184 million).
The PS5 still leads in units and dollar sales, and despite the slowing sales pace of the PS5 Pro, the base console’s sales have exceeded the PS4’s pace by seven percent. Conversely, sales for the Xbox Series X/S are lagging behind the Xbox One by 19 percent.
The PlayStation Portal’s base model was still the top-selling accessory, though total accessory spending dropped by eight percent to $220 million. Year-to-date for accessories are 18 percent behind the pace set by 2024. Gamepad sales were down 17 percent, and sales for headsets/headphones fell by 25 percent.
It should be interesting to see if hardware and accessory sales improve, especially with the Nintendo Switch 2 out this year. In the meantime, stay tuned for the console’s dedicated Direct on April 2nd.
