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Forums - Sales Discussion - December NPD 2020: Switch 2.1 million, PS5 800K, XBS 700K

Leaks

HARDWARE
Switch ~2.1 million
PS5 ~800K
XBS ~700K

SOFTWARE

December Top 5 (no digital, only retail):
Cyberpunk 2077: ~1.2 million
CoD: Black Ops: ~1.1 million
NBA 2K21: ~800K
Animal Crossing: ~700K
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ~600K

OFFICIAL RESULTS

State of the Market -

Dec 2020 US NPD THREAD - December 2020 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories reached a December record $7.7B, 25% higher when compared to a year ago. Full year spending also set a new record, totaling $56.9B, 27% higher than 2019.


US NPD Hardware -

  • Hardware dollar sales reached $1.35 billion in December 2020, an increase of 38 percent when compared to a year ago, and the highest total for a Decemeber month since the $1.37 billion achieved in December 2013.
  • Annual hardware dollar sales totaled $5.3 billion, 35% higher than 2019, and the most since $5.6 billion was reached in 2011.
  • Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware platform in units and dollars for both December and the 2020 year. Annual dollar sales of Switch hardware were the 2nd highest for a platform in U.S. history. Only the 2008 dollar sales of Nintendo Wii were higher.
  • PlayStation 5 finished 2020 as the #2 best-selling console in dollar sales, while PlayStation 4 ranked 2nd in units sold. PlayStation 5 set a new dollar sales record for PlayStation hardware through each platform's first December.


US NPD SW -

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War was the best-selling game of both December as well as 2020, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was 2020's 2nd best-seller. Call of Duty ranked as the best-selling gaming franchise in the U.S. market for a record 12th consecutive year.
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons was 2020's 3rd best-selling title, and the 6th best-selling game of December. In 2020 the title achieved the highest physical dollar sales for a Nintendo published game in a calendar year since Wii Fit Plus in 2010.
  • Cyberpunk 2077 debuted as the #2 best-selling game of December, and the 19th best-selling game of 2020, despite the lack of digital tracking.
  • The Last of Us: Part II finished 2020 as the year's 6th best-selling title overall. The Last of Us: Part II now ranks as the 3rd best-selling Sony published game in U.S. history in dollar sales, trailing only Marvel's Spider-Man and 2018's God of War.
  • Half of the top 20 best-selling games of December 2020 were published by Nintendo.


US NPD SW - December 2020 Top 20 Sellers
(Kindly Note - SW Charts are by Revenue )

Archivie

2020: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctober, November
2019: JanuaryFebruary, March, April, MayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2018: 
JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2017: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2016: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2015: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2014: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2013: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2012: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2011: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2010: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2009: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2008: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
2007: JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember

Last edited by Ryng - on 21 January 2021

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[NSW] 2700K
[PS4] 100K
[PS5] 500K
[XB1] 100K
[XBS] 400K
Unsure on the numbers after Switch; am hoping for a repeat of 2017's december and november dynamic.



Tagging.

Copying my predictions from the other thread:
Switch - 2M
PS5 - 540k
XS - 410k
XB1 - 220k
PS4 - 190k
3DS - 6k



 

I hope more specific numbers in leaks come out



So it seems like the Switch in December of 2020 was barely up from December 2019 and December 2019 the Switch sold 2.036M, so its safe to assume the Switch likely sold around 2.1M in December. I wasn't surprised by this since based off of last month it seems like Nintendo struggled to get much more stock that Holiday 2019. But nevertheless still amazing sales



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Does anyone know how NPD handles months? Does it do it by weeks like vgchartz or does it calculate each day individually? 

If it calculates by weeks, how many weeks does it use for December?

Sorry if this has been answered before, I am just curious as to how NPD could relate to VGChartz data.

Edit: Kind of answering my question a little bit here is a tweet I found, but maybe someone has more specific details?

Last edited by dmillos - on 15 January 2021

Marth said:

So PS5 was 2nd in revenue but PS4 was 2nd in units.

I'm suprised there were even enough PS4s stockpiled heading into the holiday for it to beat the PS5 in units. One would assume that Sony has been putting all their focus into shipping PS5s since its release and I was under the impression that the PS4's terrible performance in October was due to low stock. I suppose maybe it wasn't.



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Marth said:

So PS5 was 2nd in revenue but PS4 was 2nd in units.

Is this for December or 2020 as a whole? It doesn't seem very possible that PS4 sold that good in December



 

derpysquirtle64 said:
Marth said:

So PS5 was 2nd in revenue but PS4 was 2nd in units.

Is this for December or 2020 as a whole? It doesn't seem very possible that PS4 sold that good in December

Pretty sure the original quote has got somewhat confused. I believe it was actually referring to "Ps4 2013" December NPD numbers.



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COVID has been playing tricks on everybody it seems. It's going to be a long time before we see the PS5 and XBSX numbers not being directly tied to supply.



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