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Forums - Sales Discussion - January NPD 2023 Thread - PS5 #1, NS #2, XS #3 - Dead Space #2

trunkswd on 13 February 2023

January 2023 NPD covers the period from January 1 to January 28.

tldr:

December Hardware:

  • Units: PS5 #1, NS #2, XS #3
  • Revenue: PS5 #1, NS #2, XS #3

Software:

  1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
  2. Dead Space (2023) - NEW
  3. Madden NFL 23
  4. FIFA 23
  5. Fire Emblem Engage - NEW
NPD will no longer release platform specific charts

Link to VGChartz article here.

PS5 Best-Selling Console in the US in January, Dead Space Debuts in 2nd

The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the US in January 2023 in terms of units sold, according to figures from The NPD Group. NPD includes the dates for the four week period of January 1 to January 28.

The PlayStation 5 had its best January to date in terms of units and dollar sales.

The Nintendo Switch was the second best-selling console in January in terms of units sold and dollar sales, while the Xbox Series X|S came in third place.

Overall spending on video games in January was down five percent year-on-year from $4.59 billion to $4.35 billion. Spending on video game content decreased five percent from $4.01 billion to $3.79 billion, while video game hardware sales were flat at $394 million.

"U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories totaled $4.3 billion, a decline of 5% when compared to a year ago," said The NPD Group Executive Director and Video Game Industry Advisor Mat Piscatella. "Video game hardware spending was flat, while content (-5%) and accessories (-14%) spending fell."

"January 2023 marks the first time the U.S. video game market experienced a year-on-year decline since September 2022, when consumer spending reached 4% below September 2021 levels. Drops in mobile content, physical console content and gamepad spending drove the January shortfall."

Piscatella added, "U.S. video game hardware spending was flat compared to a year ago, at $393 million. Growth in PlayStation 5 and Switch hardware spending was offset by declines across other platforms."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II remained the best-selling game (in terms of revenue) in its fourth month on the market.

There were four new games in the top 20 best-selling premium games chart for January 2023. This was led by the remake of Dead Space as it debuted in second place. Fire Emblem Engage debuted in fifth, Forspoken debuted in seventh, and One Piece Odyssey debuted in ninth.

The Last of Us: Part I jumped up from 36th to 11th place in January as it was boosted by The Last of Us HBO TV series.

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for January 2023:

Last edited by trunkswd - on 14 February 2023

VGChartz Sales Analyst and Writer - William D'Angelo - I stream on Twitch and have my own YouTube. Follow me on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Writer of the Sales Comparison | Weekly Hardware Breakdown | Top 10 | Weekly Sales Analysis | Marketshare Features, as well as daily news on the Video Game Industry.

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AJNShelton on 13 February 2023

So were you correct with your estimates for January ?



trunkswd on 13 February 2023
SKMBlake said:

So were you correct with your estimates for January ?

We haven't done any estimates for January. However, based on the data we had before this we would have had the PS5 with its best January to date and Xbox Series X|S down slightly (5%-10%)



VGChartz Sales Analyst and Writer - William D'Angelo - I stream on Twitch and have my own YouTube. Follow me on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Writer of the Sales Comparison | Weekly Hardware Breakdown | Top 10 | Weekly Sales Analysis | Marketshare Features, as well as daily news on the Video Game Industry.

AJNShelton on 13 February 2023
trunkswd said:
SKMBlake said:

So were you correct with your estimates for January ?

We haven't done any estimates for January. However, based on the data we had before this we would have had the PS5 with its best January to date and Xbox Series X|S down slightly (5%-10%)

Slightly, even with the US and UK (biggest markets) down ?



UnderwaterFunktown on 13 February 2023

With hardware spending being flat YoY it sound like either the PS5 growth was fairly modest or the drop for Xbox was fairly large. It seems like a given that Switch growth was small, but just the fact that it saw any growth is pretty impressive though.



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AJNShelton on 13 February 2023
UnderwaterFunktown said:

With hardware spending being flat YoY it sound like either the PS5 growth was fairly modest or the drop for Xbox was fairly large. It seems like a given that Switch growth was small, but just the fact that it saw any growth is pretty impressive though.

Well it's the biggest January yet for PS5



trunkswd on 13 February 2023
SKMBlake said:
trunkswd said:

We haven't done any estimates for January. However, based on the data we had before this we would have had the PS5 with its best January to date and Xbox Series X|S down slightly (5%-10%)

Slightly, even with the US and UK (biggest markets) down ?

I was referring where we would have had the US estimates. Xbox Series X|S sold 307K in the US in January 2022. So 5%-10% decline would have put our estimates around 275K-290K. Considering what Mat has stated It is more likely at 275K or below that. 

Last edited by trunkswd - on 13 February 2023

VGChartz Sales Analyst and Writer - William D'Angelo - I stream on Twitch and have my own YouTube. Follow me on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Writer of the Sales Comparison | Weekly Hardware Breakdown | Top 10 | Weekly Sales Analysis | Marketshare Features, as well as daily news on the Video Game Industry.

UnderwaterFunktown on 13 February 2023
SKMBlake said:
UnderwaterFunktown said:

With hardware spending being flat YoY it sound like either the PS5 growth was fairly modest or the drop for Xbox was fairly large. It seems like a given that Switch growth was small, but just the fact that it saw any growth is pretty impressive though.

Well it's the biggest January yet for PS5

True, but we don't know by how much. January 2022 was better than January 2021, so any growth would make this it's best January ever. Of course if the growth in other markets is anything to go by it could be up by a good amount.



Try out my free game on Steam

2024 OpenCritic Prediction Leagues:

Nintendo | PlayStation | Multiplat

Zippy6 on 13 February 2023
UnderwaterFunktown said:

With hardware spending being flat YoY it sound like either the PS5 growth was fairly modest or the drop for Xbox was fairly large. It seems like a given that Switch growth was small, but just the fact that it saw any growth is pretty impressive though.

Considering PS5 is up by 98% in the UK for Jan, Up 89% in Japan for first 4 weeks and up by 261% in Spain for the first 4 weeks I'd wager it's Xbox having a substantial drop YoY.

I mean it's possible that US didn't get a boost like all these other regions but Xbox had a terrible Holiday and nothing has changed since then. They need Starfield to hopefully turn their fortunes around because the Series is in danger of even falling behind the XBO launch aligned.



Console Launch Aligned Sales Charts

Famitsu Sales Database

VGChartz Monthly Sales Database

AJNShelton on 13 February 2023
Zippy6 said:

I mean it's possible that US didn't get a boost like all these other regions but Xbox had a terrible Holiday and nothing has changed since then. They need Starfield to hopefully turn their fortunes around because the Series is in danger of even falling behind the XBO launch aligned.

Well it's already behind the One is the US, so I don't know how long the lead will be there.