Circana February 2024: #1 Helldivers 2 #2 FF7 Rebirth #4 Skull and Bones #8 FF7 Twin Pack; PS5 #1 Units+Rev, Switch #2 Units Xbox #2 Rev [UP in OP]

Jin+Jang · Mar 21, 2024

Josh5890 said:
I wouldn't exactly call putting the PS5 digital version back to it's original launch price from Nov 2020 a real price cut.

Never mentioned PS5 digital specifically, but overall both SKUs.

GamingCJ said:
The $50 discounts on PS5 (Disc and DE) happened in March, not February.

For context:
PS5 sold better this February than PS4 did in February 2017, when it got a $50 temporary price cut on top of the $100 price cut from several months before.
PS5 ($499 + SM2) > PS4 ($249 + Uncharted 4)

I swear is saw a price cuts for PS5 in Feb. in US. PS5 Spidey 2 bundle went out of stock on Amazon during last week of Feb

Danny · Mar 21, 2024

Josh5890 said:
My random thoughts for February:

It cannot be said enough but congrats to Arrowhead for their success with Helldivers 2!

Despite not having Hogwarts Legacy launch this year, games sales are slightly up for the month YOY.

Hardware was a bloodbath though. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S desperately need a price cut.

Point to the above point, the market really really needs Nintendo to launch new hardware.

Didn't expect Mario vs DK to chart.

Skull & Bones at 4 is a surprise as well.

The PS Portal seems to be selling decent enough.

At what point does Mario Kart 8 stop charting?

It seems that Mario Kart 8 legs will take it all the way to next Mario Kart release, where i expect 8 will decline ever faster from then on.

Astandahl · Mar 21, 2024

PS5 and Switch sales are super solid.

Danny · Mar 21, 2024

Playstation Boss Totoki has already stated that price cuts of PS5 kills their profit margins much more than price cuts of PS4 used to do, so they will be very reluctant to make price cuts for PS5 now that they are all about improving profit margins.

GamingCJ · Mar 21, 2024

Jin+Jang said:
I swear is saw a price cuts for PS5 in Feb. in US. PS5 Spidey 2 bundle went out of stock on Amazon during last week of Feb

Kowalski said:
It happend in the last week of February for the Disc version in some places like Walmart and Best Buy.

Oh yeah, you are right. Walmart started with the $50 Disc PS5 discount the last 6 days of NPD-February, Best Buy the last 3 days, and Gamestop the last 2 days.

Still a small discount compared to 2017, when the PS4 was $50 off for 2 full weeks at all retailers.

The Hunter · Mar 21, 2024

Josh5890 said:
My random thoughts for February:

It cannot be said enough but congrats to Arrowhead for their success with Helldivers 2!

Despite not having Hogwarts Legacy launch this year, games sales are slightly up for the month YOY.

Hardware was a bloodbath though. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S desperately need a price cut.

Point to the above point, the market really really needs Nintendo to launch new hardware.

Didn't expect Mario vs DK to chart.

Skull & Bones at 4 is a surprise as well.

The PS Portal seems to be selling decent enough.

At what point does Mario Kart 8 stop charting?

PS5 need a price cut only in case sony wanted to sell more units at the cost of profits and wanted to make absolute record of sales in hystory of gaming and sell more than last year. In that case yes, it would need a price cut. But sony doesn't want to and can't even do that right now. Actually, there is not even a great need to do so, honestly.

In any case PS5 continues to sell very well right now, +400k in February is a very good result

kazuyamishima · Mar 21, 2024

Danny said:
Playstation Boss Totoki has already stated that price cuts of PS5 kills their profit margins much more than price cuts of PS4 used to do, so they will be very reluctant to make price cuts for PS5 now that they are all about improving profit margins.

One thing to mention is that they weren't paying any studio acquisition costs back in 2017, they're still paying the $3.6B cost of Bungie.

Lelouch0612 · Mar 21, 2024

Geno062 said:
Special or collector editions of games are included in these rankings ?

I think bundle (sold with console) are not so maybe Rebirth is actually a bit higher ?

The chart is revenue based and special edition are indeed counted.

Bundles are not counted as a software but rather as hardware.

Shezard · Mar 22, 2024

Aostia82 said:
I think it being down YoY is making it hard noneless?

They are coming from a monstruos 6.3M quarter YoY. They need 4.6M this Q, so with a 25% decline they'll be in line with the new forecast.

Tbone5189 · Mar 22, 2024

Shezard said:
They are coming from a monstruos 6.3M quarter YoY. They need 4.6M this Q, so with a 25% decline they'll be in line with the new forecast.

They also came from holiday 2022 which wont need as much extra shipment as this Quarter from shortages right?

I mean sell thru could be 25% less 2023vs2024 but that wont be the case for shipmeny?

theprodigy · Mar 22, 2024

Wasn't PS5 sellthrough last year (in Q1) actually "only" 5 million in contrast to the 6.3m shipped?

Welfare · Mar 22, 2024

theprodigy said:
Wasn't PS5 sellthrough last year actually "only" 5 million in contrast to the 6.3m shipped?

PS5 Hits 36.0M Sell Through as of March 31, 2023, Sell Through History by Quarter | Supply Constraints Over According to Sony

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/business_segment_meeting/pdf/2023/GNS.pdf Q4 2020 4.4M Q1 2021 3.2M / 7.6M Q2 2021 2.3M / 9.9M Q3 2021 3.2M / 13.1M Q4 2021 4.0M / 17.1M Q1 2022 2.0M / 19.1M Q2 2022 2.3M / 21.4M Q3 2022 3.0M / 24.4M Q4 2022 6.6M / 31.0M Q1 2023 5.0M / 36.0M

www.installbaseforum.com

Q4 2020 4.4M
Q1 2021 3.2M / 7.6M
Q2 2021 2.3M / 9.9M
Q3 2021 3.2M / 13.1M
Q4 2021 4.0M / 17.1M
Q1 2022 2.0M / 19.1M
Q2 2022 2.3M / 21.4M
Q3 2022 3.0M / 24.4M
Q4 2022 6.6M / 31.0M
Q1 2023 5.0M / 36.0M

Tbone5189 · Mar 22, 2024

Welfare said:
PS5 Hits 36.0M Sell Through as of March 31, 2023, Sell Through History by Quarter | Supply Constraints Over According to Sony

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/business_segment_meeting/pdf/2023/GNS.pdf Q4 2020 4.4M Q1 2021 3.2M / 7.6M Q2 2021 2.3M / 9.9M Q3 2021 3.2M / 13.1M Q4 2021 4.0M / 17.1M Q1 2022 2.0M / 19.1M Q2 2022 2.3M / 21.4M Q3 2022 3.0M / 24.4M Q4 2022 6.6M / 31.0M Q1 2023 5.0M / 36.0M

www.installbaseforum.com

Welfare said:
Q01 4.4M <------------> 100k
Q02 3.2M / 7.6M <----> 200k
Q03 2.3M / 9.9M <----> 200k
Q04 3.2M / 13.1M <--> 300k
Q05 4.0M / 17.1M <--> 200k
Q06 2.0M / 19.1M <--> 200k
Q07 2.3M / 21.4M <--> 300k
Q08 3.0M / 24.4M <--> 600k
Q09 6.6M / 31.0M <--> 1200k
Q10 5.0M / 36.0M <--> 2400k

Did we get sell thru for Q11-13?

Welfare · Mar 22, 2024

Tbone5189 said:
Did we get sell thru for Q11-13?

No. All of that came from the business meeting in May 2023.

derby_440 · Mar 22, 2024

According to Mat these are 7 top Sony launches in $ in order.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
God of War: Ragnarok
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Marvel's Spider-Man
The Last of Us Part II
God of War 2018
Helldivers 2

There is no way Miles is number 1. He likely made mistake here?

GamingCJ · Mar 22, 2024

derby_440 said:
According to Mat these are 7 top Sony launches in $ in order.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
God of War: Ragnarok
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Marvel's Spider-Man
The Last of Us Part II
God of War 2018
Helldivers 2

There is no way Miles is number 1. He likely made mistake here?

Back when Miles Morales came out Mat posted this in the NPD report:

> Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was the 3rd best-selling game of November, while ranking 2nd on PlayStation platforms. Launch month sales were the second highest amongst superhero games on PlayStation platforms in U.S. history, trailing only Marvel's Spider-Man.<

I think Mat made a mistake somewhere.

kimbo99 · Mar 22, 2024

ILikeFeet said:
Wonder how FF7R2 did compared to the first. Placement doesn't tell us much

Seriously dude. I am shocked by all the comments saying it sold well. With no bangers out this calendar year, it's hard to tell if a game charting top 5 is actually selling well, especially without any sales figures. In my eyes, it probably missed the mark based on SE's expectations but I'm mostly basing it on them not coming out with any celebratory tweets

Tialo · Mar 22, 2024

So hw data should look YTD like this so far:

PS5:
420k
415k
Total: 835k

Switch:
250k
210k
Total: 460k

XBOXS/X:
210k
195k
Total: 405k

Astandahl · Mar 22, 2024

Tialo said:
So hw data should look YTD like this so far:

PS5:
420k
415k
Total: 835k

Switch:
250k
210k
Total: 460k

XBOXS/X:
210k
195k
Total: 405k

Do we have comp with PS4 and Xbox One in 2017?

derby_440 · Mar 22, 2024

Astandahl said:
Do we have comp with PS4 and Xbox One in 2017?

Month	PS4	Xbox One	Switch
January	211,000	158,000	-
February	398,000	215,000	-
March	397,000	244,000	911,000
April	206,000	110,000	281,000
May	187,000	109,000	165,000
June	381,000	153,000	216,000
July	217,000	131,000	222,000
August	181,000	114,000	206,000
September	300,000	180,000	310,000
October	211,000	129,000	290,000
November	1,690,000	1,380,000	775,000
December	1,050,000	1,350,000	1,500,000
Total Year	5,429,000	4,273,000	4,876,000

enpleinjour · Mar 22, 2024

derby_440 said:
According to Mat these are 7 top Sony launches in $ in order.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
God of War: Ragnarok
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Marvel's Spider-Man
The Last of Us Part II
God of War 2018
Helldivers 2

There is no way Miles is number 1. He likely made mistake here?

I think its definitely not right.

GOW, GOWR, SM, SM2, TLOU PII opened way way higher in unit sales than Miles Morales. We know MM did 700K physical, even assuming huge digital ratios of 50% at the time, it will still be behind the launches of those games.

And the prior SM NPD PR already disproves it.

Aostia82 · Mar 22, 2024

derby_440 said:
Month PS4 Xbox One Switch
January 211,000 158,000 -
February 398,000 215,000 -
March 397,000 244,000 911,000
April 206,000 110,000 281,000
May 187,000 109,000 165,000
June 381,000 153,000 216,000
July 217,000 131,000 222,000
August 181,000 114,000 206,000
September 300,000 180,000 310,000
October 211,000 129,000 290,000
November 1,690,000 1,380,000 775,000
December 1,050,000 1,350,000 1,500,000
Total Year 5,429,000 4,273,000 4,876,000

the increase of Switch sales Jan-Feb 2017 / 2024 is STUNNING!!!

(/jk)

Tialo · Mar 22, 2024

Switch sales should be much better than DS and 3DS sales have been in its 8th year in the US, arent they?

Astandahl · Mar 22, 2024

derby_440 said:
Month PS4 Xbox One Switch
January 211,000 158,000 -
February 398,000 215,000 -
March 397,000 244,000 911,000
April 206,000 110,000 281,000
May 187,000 109,000 165,000
June 381,000 153,000 216,000
July 217,000 131,000 222,000
August 181,000 114,000 206,000
September 300,000 180,000 310,000
October 211,000 129,000 290,000
November 1,690,000 1,380,000 775,000
December 1,050,000 1,350,000 1,500,000
Total Year 5,429,000 4,273,000 4,876,000

Thanks.

So PS5 is up 37ish% compared to PS4 and Xbox Series is up 8.5% compared to Xbox One in the first two months.

GamingCJ · Mar 22, 2024

Astandahl said:
Thanks.

So PS5 is up 37ish% compared to PS4 and Xbox Series is up 8.5% compared to Xbox One in the first two months.

January was a 5-week-month this year though, compared to 4-week-month in 2017

Tbone5189 · Mar 22, 2024

Tialo said:
Switch sales should be much better than DS and 3DS sales have been in its 8th year in the US, arent they?

NDS I think started already to fall off but 3ds year 8 is 2018. I'm sure nsw is doing better than even 3ds year 4-6. In fact I think only what PS2/x360 were able to push these numbers past year 7 correct me if I'm wrong

KillerMan · Mar 22, 2024

Tialo said:
Switch sales should be much better than DS and 3DS sales have been in its 8th year in the US, arent they?

Both DS and 3DS were replaced by their successors at this point so comparisons are rather pointless. DS sold extremely well to the day 3DS launched and even after that for a while until 3DS got huge price cut. After that it made zero sense to buy DS. Like if there was $399 Switch 2 (with BC) in the market at the moment Switch sales would not be anywhere near what they currently are because especially something like OLED model would lose almost all its market appeal.

opaidiota · Mar 22, 2024

Tialo said:
PS5:
420k
415k
Total: 835k

Comments about bloodbath and the urgent need to cut prices become increasingly exaggerated throughout this thread.

I would love a price cut tho.

fiendcode · Mar 22, 2024

Tbone5189 said:
NDS I think started already to fall off but 3ds year 8 is 2018. I'm sure nsw is doing better than even 3ds year 4-6. In fact I think only what PS2/x360 were able to push these numbers past year 7 correct me if I'm wrong

Switch is definitely doing better but 3DS had a stronger end cycle than usual for Nintendo thanks to the Go fueled Pokémon resurgence. It also wasn't cut off at the legs like DS was due to R4 cards/piracy, games were still selling through the platform wind down so it had good continued support from 2017-2019.

Astandahl · Mar 22, 2024

GamingCJ said:
January was a 5-week-month this year though, compared to 4-week-month in 2017

And in 2017 which was the 5 week month, March?

Welfare · Mar 22, 2024

Astandahl said:
And in 2017 which was the 5 week month, March?

March is always a 5 week month and will be this year.

Astandahl · Mar 22, 2024

Welfare said:
March is always a 5 week month and will be this year.

Right, thanks.

So without accounting for the additional week, PS5 should be up 22.6%

Did Sony have temporary deals in February/March 2017? I honestly don't remember.

Welfare · Mar 22, 2024

Astandahl said:
Right, thanks.

So without accounting for the additional week, PS5 should be up 22.6%

Did Sony have temporary deals in February/March 2017? I honestly don't remember.

That's what the NPD Archives are for

Top of every thread I collected every major impact for hardware in the year.

NPD (Circana) 2017 Full Year Results: Discussion Thread

Dates in Tracking: January 01, 2017 - December 30, 2017 [52 Weeks] Console Full Year Results Month PS4 Xbox One Switch January 211,000 158,000 - February 398,000 215,000 - March 397,000 244,000 911,000 April 206,000 110,000 281,000 May 187,000 109,000 165,000 June 381,000 153,000...

www.installbaseforum.com

[#2] February - 4 Weeks
[XB1] [Week 1] $349 S Model Forza Horizon 3 1TB Bundle
[XB1] [Week 2] $299 S Model Forza Horizon 3 500GB Bundle
[XB1] [Week 3] $349 S Model Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition 1TB Bundle
[XB1] [Week 3] + [Week 4] Temporary Price Drop: $349 S Model 1TB > $299 (February 12 - February 25)
[XB1] [Week 3] + [Week 4] Temporary Price Drop: $299 S Model 500GB > $249 (February 12 - February 25)

[PS4] [Week 2] [Walmart] $299 Slim Model Glacier White Version Call of Duty Infinite Warfare Deluxe Edition 500GB Bundle
[PS4] [Week 3] + [Week 4] Temporary Price Drop: $299 Slim Model 500GB > $249 (February 12 - February 25)

Astandahl · Mar 22, 2024

Welfare said:
That's what the NPD Archives are for

Top of every thread I collected every major impact for hardware in the year.

NPD (Circana) 2017 Full Year Results: Discussion Thread

Dates in Tracking: January 01, 2017 - December 30, 2017 [52 Weeks] Console Full Year Results Month PS4 Xbox One Switch January 211,000 158,000 - February 398,000 215,000 - March 397,000 244,000 911,000 April 206,000 110,000 281,000 May 187,000 109,000 165,000 June 381,000 153,000...

www.installbaseforum.com

[#2] February - 4 Weeks
[XB1] [Week 1] $349 S Model Forza Horizon 3 1TB Bundle
[XB1] [Week 2] $299 S Model Forza Horizon 3 500GB Bundle
[XB1] [Week 3] $349 S Model Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition 1TB Bundle
[XB1] [Week 3] + [Week 4] Temporary Price Drop: $349 S Model 1TB > $299 (February 12 - February 25)
[XB1] [Week 3] + [Week 4] Temporary Price Drop: $299 S Model 500GB > $249 (February 12 - February 25)

[PS4] [Week 2] [Walmart] $299 Slim Model Glacier White Version Call of Duty Infinite Warfare Deluxe Edition 500GB Bundle
[PS4] [Week 3] + [Week 4] Temporary Price Drop: $299 Slim Model 500GB > $249 (February 12 - February 25)

Is there a topic collecting all the link to various NPD months? Would be quite useful to check past info.

Edit: found it

Vena · Mar 23, 2024

Kowalski said:
This is one of the things I hate most about Matt's report every month.
With all due respect to his efforts, game performance is just data that is put forward for analysis. Taking into account game fans "feelings" is, to say the least, strange.

Kowalski said:
I'm not against his point, but I'm against not presenting the information.
Of course, fanboys will try to twist any information to fit their narrative, whether it's with or against the game.
This should not affect the matter of presenting the information to those interested so that they can benefit, analyze, and discuss it.

Flakster99 said:
Helldivers 2 is a fun game, nice to see it perform this well.

Agreed. Imagine if Chris, or others whom also share their insights here, took "gamers feelings" into account when posting data/ analysis.

As with the Dring commentary, we frown on these sorts of meta commentaries. You're not owed anything from Mat and this sort of comment only serves to alienate some of the very people who give us access to the numbers we use to drive this forum.

If he does not want to discuss a game for 'feelings' reasons, it often means its because it attracts posts or comments not dissimilar to yours now just from a different group and he does not want to deal with it.

Shadow of the Void · Mar 26, 2024

Looks like the PS5 & XBS are post-peak. The Switch being only ~220k for February doesn't bode well for the rest of the year.

I miss the days when we got actual numbers.

Not Crazy Steve · Mar 26, 2024

Do we currently have an estimate of how much the Xbox Series is tracking behind the Xbox One worldwide?

StrazakGoz · Mar 26, 2024

Not Crazy Steve said:
Do we currently have an estimate of how much the Xbox Series is tracking behind the Xbox One worldwide?

Between 3-4 million units.

Tbone5189 · Mar 26, 2024

Shadow of the Void said:
Looks like the PS5 & XBS are post-peak. The Switch being only ~220k for February doesn't bode well for the rest of the year.

I miss the days when we got actual numbers.

Why? Where is it suppose to be at? What was the sales for other consoles in comparison in its 8th year that we have and it’s still ahead of even Xbox series despite no price cut/sales?

I mean it’s also well above 40mil in the US right

IronTed · Mar 27, 2024

Tbone5189 said:
Why? Where is it suppose to be at? What was the sales for other consoles in comparison in its 8th year that we have and it’s still ahead of even Xbox series despite no price cut/sales?

I mean it’s also well above 40mil in the US right

Month	PS2	360	NSW
January	264,000	281,000	~250,000
February	352,000	302,000	~220,000

The 360 and PS2 have the best years 8's. Nothing else comes particularly close to hitting 200k this far in.

Tbone5189 · Mar 27, 2024

IronTed said:
Month PS2 360 NSW
January 264,000 281,000 ~250,000
February 352,000 302,000 ~220,000

The 360 and PS2 have the best years 8's. Nothing else comes particularly close to hitting 200k this far in.

Only thing missing is what ps2/x360 sold lifetime ( I think nsw over 43mil now?

Kmds · Mar 27, 2024

Tbone5189 said:
Only thing missing is what ps2/x360 sold lifetime ( I think nsw over 43mil now?

NSW ~ 44.65M
PS2~ 46.4M
X360 ~ 43.2M

So Switch will pass the PS2 definitely this year but I don’t think it’ll hit 50M

Lelouch0612 · Mar 27, 2024

Kmds said:
NSW ~ 44.65M
PS2~ 46.4M
X360 ~ 43.2M

So Switch will pass the PS2 definitely this year but I don’t think it’ll hit 50M

It doesn't need much to hit 50m tbh. Should end the year around 48m no ?

Tialo · Mar 27, 2024

I think that Switch could indeed surpass 50M units LTD in the US. As @Lelouch0612 mentioned, it should be at 47.5M - 48M till the end of year 2024. And I think that it will still sell a few units in 2025ff. So 50M bar will most probably be crossed. But I think NDS LTD sales will definetly be out of range of Switch

Astral_lion02 · Mar 27, 2024

Shadow of the Void said:
Looks like the PS5 & XBS are post-peak. The Switch being only ~220k for February doesn't bode well for the rest of the year.

I miss the days when we got actual numbers.

Yes, we have unfortunatly enter in a sort of 0 leak era regarding to US hardware.

In the beggening of this video Pachter talk about it's relationship with NPD/Circana.
Circana uses impressive methods to keep its figures secret, which favors the current situation.

KillerMan · Mar 27, 2024

It always baffles me how secretive industry gaming is compared to any other entertainment industry. Sucks =(

Ystad · Mar 27, 2024

Astral_lion02 said:
Yes, we have unfortunatly enter in a sort of 0 leak era regarding to US hardware.

In the beggening of this video Pachter talk about it's relationship with NPD/Circana.
Circana uses impressive methods to keep its figures secret, which favors the current situation.

Just before the 6 min mark, Pachter: "... for Microsoft, 400 million is nothing... it's a rounding error..."

Shadow of the Void · Mar 27, 2024

Tbone5189 said:
Why? Where is it suppose to be at? What was the sales for other consoles in comparison in its 8th year that we have and it’s still ahead of even Xbox series despite no price cut/sales?

I mean it’s also well above 40mil in the US right

I'm not comparing it to other systems, but to its own sales. It's down by a significant margin year-over-year, and those comps are going to start looking even worse coming up here in Q2. It is going to be down massively YoY for the year, I would think at minimum 25-30% from 2023. This is the last full calendar year the Switch has before being replaced. Most of the rest of its lifetime sales will come in the next 12 months, so whatever milestones it can still pass will depend on how well it does this year.

Astral_lion02 said:
Yes, we have unfortunatly enter in a sort of 0 leak era regarding to US hardware.

In the beggening of this video Pachter talk about it's relationship with NPD/Circana.
Circana uses impressive methods to keep its figures secret, which favors the current situation.

It frustrates me how absolutely secretive and opaque the video game industry is, especially in recent years. We get daily box office revenues for movies (maybe not ticket sales, but that can be estimated from average ticket prices), so we know exactly how well (or poorly) every single theatrical release performs. We get sales figures for DVDs, Blu-rays, and music albums. We even get TV ratings, at least for broadcast & cable (streaming has its own secrecy problems, with the best we get being a Top 10 in the U.S. from Nielsen). Even outside the entertainment industry we can often find direct unit sales for a lot of things, like automobiles. Sometimes we find quite detailed facts & figures.

When it comes to video games, we still do get numbers for Japan, but Stateside we once had full hardware and software sales from NPD, then software gradually dried up as we eventually only got numbers for the Top 10 and then none at all by the middle of last decade, then hardware dried up, first with official figures vanishing and then the leaks getting plugged. Now all we get is a context-free Top 10 software list (relative rankings tell us nothing other than "A did better/worse than B") and a revenue total for hardware with the occasional vague hints from which to derive rough estimates. It's better than absolutely nothing at all, but we know less about video game sales than we have at any point in the past 20-25 years, and far less than we know about most other media. It makes these sorts of boards and discussions far less interesting than they used to be. I got into discussing sales maybe 12-13 years ago, but I don't post as much about it as I used to, and engagement in general on the subject has declined considerably. I remember sales threads on other sites going on for like dozens of pages at times.

The big problem is that in the U.S. the only people publishing sales numbers are a single Big Data company. The game industry doesn't routinely publish any sell-through numbers for software. Only Nintendo & Sony publish hardware data, but that's quarterly data only, and it's always shipped, not sold (though Sony did regularly publish actual sales numbers for the PS4 for most of its life). That we get anything from Japan anymore is entirely because one of the major sales trackers is a video game magazine (Media Create is the same kind of business as NPD/Circana, and they stopped publicly publishing numbers several years back as well). Meanwhile, other parts of the entertainment industry never needed an NPD equivalent to track and publish their sales numbers for them, or simply didn't insist the numbers were some great industry secret that the plebs shouldn't have access to, like it was the Colonel's Secret Recipe or something. Some years ago I proposed a crowd-funded alternative and most people just shat all over the idea, seemingly defending NPD's monopoly on sales tracking.

It also doesn't help that the video game industry writ large gets down to some really shady and manipulative bullshit. I mean, this is the same industry that decided the best way to make money was to take things people used to be able to unlock through gameplay and turn them into premium purchases, and they got aggressive enough with that to where what you got was determined by an RNG. They would have taken that even further if it wasn't for various governments starting to investigate them. There are lots of times where I feel like the internet was the worst thing to ever happen to video games. So of course that same industry would probably develop a tendency to have sales numbers a closely-guarded secret unless it's something they really wanted to brag about.

I would go further with my grievances, but that would probably risk getting too political for this board, and I assume that's generally frowned upon given the site's focus.

Welfare · Mar 27, 2024

Push for politicians to expand labor unions and regulations that require big companies to disclose more information on profitable items.

There are people that work on games at high levels that don't know how well their game sells. Expand unions and laws that give employees more power, that power would need to come from transparent sales data that dictates whether layoffs happen or not.

Or a data leak. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm personally at the point where I'd pay money just to have the complete data set NPD has from 1995 to 2023 if it were a possible one time purchase.

Ystad · Mar 27, 2024

Welfare said:
I'm personally at the point where I'd pay money just to have the complete data set NPD has from 1995 to 2023 if it were a possible one time purchase.

Is it possible that old data can be purchased for a lot less than the ~100k/year (according to Pachter)?

Circana - U.S. Video Game Industry Sales - February 2024 (Dollars, Millions) Reporting Period: 2/4/2024 through 3/2/2024 (4 weeks)	Feb-23	Feb-24	Change
Total Video Game Sales	$4,636	$4,714	2%
Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC and VR platforms)	$3,962	$4,146	5%
Video Game Hardware	$498	$349	-30%
Video Game Accessories	$175	$219	45%

Circana - U.S. Video Game Industry Sales - February 2023 (Dollars, Millions) Reporting Period: 12/30/2023 through 3/2/2024 (9 weeks)	YTD End Feb 2023	YTD End Feb 2024	Change
Total Video Game Sales	$9,058	$9,783	8%
Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC, and VR platforms)	$7,819	$8,590	10%
Video Game Hardware	$894	$727	-19%
Video Game Accessories	$345	$465	35%

Rank	Prior Month	Game	Publisher	Weeks in Tracking
1	NEW	Helldivers II	Sony (Corp)	4
2	NEW	Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth	Square Enix Inc (Corp)	1
3	1	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)	Activision Blizzard (Corp)	-
4	NEW	Skull and Bones	Ubisoft	3
5	2	Tekken 8	Bandai Namco Entertainment	-
6	5	Madden NFL 24 [EA Sports]	Electronic Arts	-
7	3	Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League	Warner Bros. Games	-
8	NEW	Final Fantasy VII: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack	Square Enix Inc (Corp)	1
9	4	P3: Persona 3: Reload [Shin Megami Tensei]	Multiple Video Game Manufacturers	-
10	6	Hogwarts Legacy	Warner Bros. Games	-
11	NEW	Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2024)*	Nintendo	3
12	8	EA Sports FC 24	Electronic Arts	-
13	10	Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Sony)	Sony (Corp)	-
14	14	Elden Ring	Bandai Namco Entertainment	-
15	11	Super Mario Bros Wonder*	Nintendo	-
16	17	Minecraft	Multiple Video Game Manufacturers	-
17	18	Mario Kart 8*	Nintendo	-
18	15	Mortal Kombat 1	Warner Bros. Games	-
19	21	Rainbow Six: Siege [Tom Clancy's]	Ubisoft	-
20	12	Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora	Ubisoft	-

Rank	Prior Month	Game	Publisher	Weeks in Tracking
1	NEW	Helldivers II	Sony (Corp)	4
2	1	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)	Activision Blizzard (Corp)	-
3	2	Tekken 8	Bandai Namco Entertainment	6
4	NEW	Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth	Square Enix Inc (Corp)	1
5	3	Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League	Warner Bros. Games	5
6	5	Madden NFL 24 [EA Sports]	Electronic Arts	-
7	4	P3: Persona 3: Reload [Shin Megami Tensei]	Multiple Video Game Manufacturers	5
8	6	Hogwarts Legacy	Warner Bros. Games	-
9	NEW	Skull and Bones	Ubisoft	3
10	8	EA Sports FC 24	Electronic Arts	-
11	10	Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Sony)	Sony (Corp)	-
12	7	Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth	Sega	6
13	9	The Last of Us: Part II	Sony (Corp)	-
14	11	Super Mario Bros Wonder*	Nintendo	-
15	14	Elden Ring	Bandai Namco Entertainment	-
16	NEW	Final Fantasy VII: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack	Square Enix Inc (Corp)	1
17	12	Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora	Ubisoft	-
18	17	Minecraft	Multiple Video Game Manufacturers	-
19	15	Mortal Kombat 1	Warner Bros. Games	-
20	18	Mario Kart 8*	Nintendo	-

Rank	Prior Month	Game	Publisher	Weeks in Tracking
1	NEW	Helldivers II	Sony (Corp)	4
2	NEW	Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth	Square Enix Inc (Corp)	1
3	1	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)	Activision Blizzard (Corp)	-
4	NEW	Final Fantasy VII: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack	Square Enix Inc (Corp)	1
5	NEW	Skull and Bones	Ubisoft	3
6	5	Madden NFL 24 [EA Sports]	Electronic Arts	-
7	3	Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League	Warner Bros. Games	-
8	2	Tekken 8	Bandai Namco Entertainment	-
9	7	Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Sony)	Sony (Corp)	-
10	4	P3: Persona 3: Reload [Shin Megami Tensei]	Multiple Video Game Manufacturers	-

Rank	Prior Month	Game	Publisher	Weeks in Tracking
1	1	Fortnite	Epic Games	-
2	2	Call of Duty HQ*	Activision	-
3	3	Grand Theft Auto V (Remastered)	Rockstar Games	-
4	5	NBA 2K24	2K Sports	-
5	6	Madden NFL 24 [EA Sports]	Electronic Arts	-
6	4	Roblox	Roblox Corporation	-
7	NEW	Helldivers II	Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios	4
8	8	Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Sony)	Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.	-
9	11	Apex Legends	Electronic Arts	-
10	12	Minecraft	Mojang Studios, Xbox Game Studios	-

Rank	Prior Month	Game	Publisher	Weeks in Tracking
1	NEW	Helldivers II	Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios	4
2	1	Palworld	Pocket Pair Inc.	-
3	3	Counter-Strike 2	Valve	-
4	2	Lethal Company	Zeekerss	-
5	4	Baldur's Gate III	Larian Studios	-
6	7	Enshrouded	Keen Games	-
7	113	Last Epoch	Eleventh Hour Games	-
8	6	Rocket League	Psyonix	-
9	5	The Finals	Embark Studios	-
10	16	Elden Ring	Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.	-