Published , by Brittany Vincent
Published , by Brittany Vincent
The coronavirus has changed many things, but there's one aspect of modern life that remains a constant: people love playing video games. In fact, people are playing even more video games now that we're all spending more time at home.
According to the Q1 2020 Games Market Dynamics report from the NPD Group overall consumer spending on gaming in the US reached a record total of $10.86 billion in the first quarter of 2020 alone. This is up 9 percent from last year during the same period. In fact, sales of video game content are up 11 percent from last quarter's $9.58 billion as well.
"Video games have brought comfort and connection to millions during this challenging time," said Mat Piscatella, games industry analyst at The NPD Group. "As people have stayed at home more, they’ve utilized gaming not only as a diversion and an escape, but also as a means of staying connected with family and friends. Whether it was on console or mobile, PC or virtual reality, gaming experienced play and sales growth during the first quarter."
Some of the best-performing games during this time period include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Doom Eternal, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Fortnite in terms of sales.
There was strong Nintendo Switch software and hardware sales performance, which lead to an overall increase in the hardware market to 2 percent, which brought things up to $773 million. Game accessories increased 1 percent in the first quarter, totaling $503 million.
It looks like things are still going quite well in the land of video game spending. Here's to hoping a strong second quarter comes around,