March Video Game Sales Decline 6%

16 Apr, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

---

Sales of new physical video games dropped 6% in March to $963.7 million, from $1 billion a year ago, according to new data from The NPD Group. Software sales (excluding new releases) declined 6% to $405 million, from $431.7 million.

One factor in the decline of total new physical sales was the 16% decrease of new releases compared with the same period in March 2014.

“Strong growth of eighth-generation consoles (PS4, Xbox One, Wii U) helped to partially offset the sharp declines of seventh-generation consoles, down 52%, and physical PC games, down 64%,” analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement.

Hardware sales revenue dropped 21% to $311 million, from $393.4 million. Unit sales decreased 9%, with average prices down 13% across all platforms.

Console hardware sales revenue fell 29%, or $104 million decrease, in spending while portable hardware rose by 71% over last year.

Combined PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sales over the past 17 months are over 50% higher than the same period of combined totals for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

In March, cumulative U.S. Xbox One sales continued to outpace Xbox 360 sales at the same point in its lifecycle. Globally, the average amount of time spent playing games on Xbox One through Xbox Live increased by 45% in March 2015 compared with March 2014, according to Microsoft.

Xbox marketing executive Mike Nichols said the average Xbox One Twitch broadcaster is sharing 212 minutes or 3.5 hours of gameplay each month.

Microsoft releases Halo 5: Guardians Oct. 27.

 

Bookmark it: