December 2024 Circana (NPD) covers the five-week period from December 1, 2024 to January 4, 2025 and will be released on January 23.

Since Circana (NPD) leaks don't happen nearly as often as it used to and hardware revenue is something we do get, be sure to include revenue in your predictions.

Feel free to also predict what you think the top software games will be for the month.

Example prediction:

[Total Hardware Revenue]

1. [#1 selling console] XXX,000
2. [#2 selling console] XXX,000
3. [#3 selling console] XXX,000

VGChartz US estimates for December 2023:

1. PS5 - 1,523K
2. NS - 1,296K
3. XSX|S - 1,138K

Potential boost to sales:

• Cyber Monday
• Holidays until Christmas
• Consoles temporarily discounted for the holidays.

Upcoming Circana (NPD) release dates (subject to change as Circana has delayed reports in the past):

• Dec (Dec 1 - Jan 4) - Jan 23
• Jan (Jan 5 - Feb 1) - Feb 21
• Feb (Feb 2 - Mar 1) - Mar 19
• Mar (Mar 2 - Apr 5) - Apr 23
• Apr (Apr 6 - May 3) - May 21

RESULTS

TLDR:

Units: 1. PS5 2. NS 3. XS
Revenue: 1. PS5 2. NS 3. XS

Link to the full VGChartz report here.

PS5 Best-Seller in the US in December, Indiana Jones Best-Selling New Release

The PlayStation 5 was once again the best-selling console in the US in December 2024 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the five-week period of December 1, 2024 to January 4, 2025.

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

In terms of dollar sales, the PlayStation 5 is down 18 percent year-on-year, while the Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo switch are down 38 percent.

For the 2024 year, the PlayStation 5 was number one in units sold and dollar sales, while the Nintendo Switch came in second in units sold and third in dollar sales. The Xbox Series X|S came in third in units sold and second in dollar sales.

49 percent of PlayStation 5 consoles and Xbox Series X|S consoles sold were digital versions. For the 2024 year, digital versions accounted for 45 percent of all PlayStation 5 consoles sold and 44 percent of all Xbox Series X|S consoles sold.

The PlayStation 5 is the 11th best-selling console of all-time in the US, while dollar sales in the US it is now in third place, behind the Nintendo Switch and Xbox 360.

Overall spending on video games in December decreased nine percent year-on-year from $8.28 billion to $7.54 billion. Spending on video game content decreased five percent from $6.05 billion to $5.76 billion, while video game hardware sales decreased 29 percent from $1.56 billion to $1.11 billion. Spending on accessories decreased less than one percent from $673 million to $671 million.

"December 2024 projected U.S. consumer spending on video game hardware, content and accessories declined 8.9% when compared to a year ago, to $7.5B," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella. "Spending during the 2024 year fell 1.1% compared to 2023, to $58.7B."

In terms of 2024 total sales, overall spending on video games is down one percent year-on-year from $59.29 billion to $58.66 billion. Spending on video game content increased two percent from $49.85 billion to $50.64 billion, while video game hardware sales dropped 25 percent from $6.45 billion to $4.85 billion. Spending on accessories increased six percent from $2.99 billion to $23.17 billion.

Video game content spending in 2024 was the second highest in US history, only behind 2021's $52.0 billion. Growth in mobile, non-mobile subscription and the PC, cloud and non-console VR segments were offset by an 11 percent decline in spending on video game content on consoles.

The Midnight Black DualSense controller was the best-selling gamepad in terms of dollar sales for December and for 2024. the PlayStation Portal remains the best-selling accessory in terms of dollar sales for December and for 2024.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling game in December and is the best-selling game of 2024. The Call of Duty in 2024 spent a 16th consecutive year as the best-selling video game franchise in the US in terms of full game dollar sales.

EA Sports College Football 25 was the third best-selling game in December and the second best-selling game of 2024. It ranked as number one on Xbox consoles. It is also the best-selling sports video game in US history.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the only new release in December to debut in the top 20. It came in 14th place in its first month on the overall charts and fourth place on the Xbox charts.

Marvel Rivals came in first place on the monthly active users list on Steam, while it came in third on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for December 2024:

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in 2024 year-to-date:

Here are the top 20 best-selling PlayStation games in 2024:

Here are the top 20 best-selling Xbox games in 2024:

Here are the top 20 best-selling Nintendo games in 2024:

Here are the top 10 games played on the PlayStation 5 ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 10 games played on the Xbox Series X|S ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 10 games played on Steam ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on PlayStation platforms in December 2024:

Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Xbox platforms in December 2024:

Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Nintendo platforms in December 2024:

Just over one week until the report drops.

PS5- 1.7 million
Switch- 0.9 million
Xbox- 0.9 million

PS5 : 1,6 million
Switch : 1,2 million
Series : 800K

We again don't have the EU data just before the US one release. Will we have to wait again well past the NPD report for the EU and the complete WW data to be available ?

I'm not going to wait nearly as long this time. I will just use what data I have then adjust once we get more data. We did get a full year report for 2024 that told us how much the 3 consoles are down year-on-year in the covered Europe markets. That is enough to get us a decent idea of sales for December along with other sources of information.

I might just go ahead and post the Europe estimates on Friday based on what information we have now. 

2 days until NPD / Circana report for December drops.

OP updated with the results

In terms of dollar sales:

PS5 -18% YoY

NS and XS -38% YoY.

IF average selling price remained the same as last year (it definitely didn't) we get:

1. PS5: 1,248,647
2. NS: 803,366
3. XS: 705,814

PS5 and Switch had better deals in Dec 2024 than the year before so sales for those should be higher than the raw % drop. Xbox had worse deals so sales should be worse than the raw % drop. Though for PS5 there is the PS5 Pro to take into account.

The split between digital editions seems relevant. Mat released data about this.