It’s the Big One: the one you’ve waited all year for. Well, if you’re the type that live for analyzing game sales, estimates, and relative industry-health, anyway. That’s right: the NPD finally shared its estimates for the busiest shopping month of the year – November 2017 – which includes post-Thanksgiving sales from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and everything else left on shelves both retail and digital.
For this, our brave number-crunchers return to the fray as Cory Galliher and Nathan Evans put on one hell of a year-capper, going through not just the NPD estimates for November, but the year in general. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry…you’ll wonder if you left the oven on (note: you probably did). You’ll also learn that soy sauce and French fries are an untapped treat worth exploring. Oh, the things you’ll learn this month!
As always, these numbers (and our hosts colorful commentary) should be taken as mere snapshots of the industry’s overall health and vitality; not every retailer is included (or even participates), but don’t let that stop you from sharing the fun. The overall turnaround from slump to champ has been great not only for the gaming industry, but consumers as well.
Total sales of new gaming hardware and software were up a remarkable 30 percent over last year ($2.07 billion over $2.072 billion), a nice snapshot of the goodness to come from all segments of an industry in the midst of a much-needed upward swing. Let’s take a peek at where this month’s turnaround stems from.
Hardware! And lots of it. Sales of new gaming hardware led the charge, up a remarkable 52 percent over last year ($1.147 billion over $742 million). As great as those digits are, it’s the “where from” that things get really interesting. While Sony’s PlayStation 4 regained the top-selling console of the month (and still, cumulatively, the entire year) the introduction of Microsoft’s 4K-powered Xbox One X – as well as lots of discounted Xbox One S consoles – helped the Windows company net more earnings than either Sony or Nintendo. Interestingly, NPD reports that both the PS4 and Xbox One platforms sold more units in November than any previous month.
Don’t count Nintendo, out, though. The Switch continues to sell like gangbusters, topping 10 million units sold since January (nearly matching the Wii U’s lifetime tally in less than a year). Despite having limited units available, the Switch continued to steer Nintendo to one of their best year’s ever, helped by strong sales of a replenished stock of the SNES Classic. 3DS sales also surged, thanks in no small part to a handful of new Pokémon games. This is part helped the overall industry’s health tick 28 percent up from last year.
Even sales of new gaming accessories shared the spoils of victory, up a nice 11 percent over last year ($344 million over $311 million). NPD reports that it’s new controllers that led the charge, though no word whether they intend to track amiibo-powered cereal boxes as “accessories” in the future. Hey, they count the SNES Classic as a “console”, right?
All those shiny new consoles in the wild will need software, and there’s plenty to go around. Sales of new console hardware blazed forward towards $1.164 billion, up a terrific 19 percent over last year’s $978 million. New PC game software also saw a nice bump at $33 million, up 13 percent over last year’s $29 million. This charge was no doubt led by Activision’s surefire blockbuster Call of Duty: WW2, which is already the years best-selling game after less than a month. NPD notes that the franchise is now the industry’s most lucrative, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever held a controller.
