July 2026 Circana (NPD) Thread + Predictions

[XtremeBG]

CosmicSex said:

konnichiwa said:

Xbox And EA aren’t sharing U.S. digital sales data with Circana anymore •
As of July 2026, Xbox is no longer a Circana digital data sharing panel participating publisher •
EA also dropped its Circana membership around the time it went private •
Circana relies on publishers/platforms to share digital storefront sales; physical sales still come from retailers •
Xbox’s exit hides first-party U.S. digital sales, including Call of Duty •
It also further obscures sales for publishers not on the panel, such as Ubisoft and now EA •
Nintendo already does not share digital data; its Circana numbers are estimates •
July software charts now involve more guesswork because of the missing sources •
Remaining panel members include Bandai Namco, Capcom, Crystal Dynamics, Disney Interactive, Eidos, Konami, Plaion, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, and Warner Bros. •
Digital already makes up a huge share of sales, so losing digital data leaves a much weaker picture •
PlayStation is ending disc production in 2028, which would make Circana even more dependent on platforms sharing data •
Unconfirmed reports say Xbox may also have pulled out of Game Sales Data (GSD) in Europe •
Less public sales data makes it easier for companies to control narratives around hits, misses, and layoffs

Circana should just start replacing the missing data with the number 0.  The lack of transparency is what lead to the disc drama in the first place.  They basically hid the fact that physical had dropped to the degree it had which prevented consumers from being able to inform how their habits were shapping the industry.  Sony for its part has documented its sales breakdown publicly for some time.  

Every single publisher and manufacturer should start doing reports every single month, and give exact number for us the public, on each piece of software and hardware they sell, for each region. That's it. So easy.