US consumers spent $56.9 billion on gaming in 2020

US consumers spent a record $56.9 billion on gaming in 2020, a jump of 27 per cent from 2019, according to data from the NPD Group.

December was a particularly big month for games, consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories reached a December record of $7.7 billion, 25 per cent higher than in December 2019.

Hardware dollar sales, meanwhile, reached $1.35 billion in December 2020, a jump of 38 per cent compared to 2019, and the highest total for a December month since the $1.37 billion generated in December 2013.

Hardware dollar sales totalled $5.3 billion for the year, 35 per cent higher than 2019, and the highest since the $5.6 billion generated in 2011.

The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console of 2020, with annual dollar sales being the second highest for an individual platform in a single calendar year in U.S. history – beaten only by another Nintendo console, the Wii, in 2008.

Despite supply issues, the Playstation 5 was the second best-selling console in dollar sales, while PlayStation 4 ranked second in units sold. PlayStation 5 set a new dollar sales record for PlayStation hardware through each PlayStation platform’s first December at retail.

Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War was both the best selling game of December 2020 and the year as a whole, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the second best-seller of the year.

Call of Duty ranked as the best-selling gaming franchise in the U.S. market for a record 12th consecutive y

Animal Crossing:New Horizons, while not quite as popular as it is in Japan, still proved successful in the US, ranking third. In 2020, the title achieved the highest physical dollar sales for a Nintendo-published game in a calendar year since Wii Fit Plus in 2010.

Nintendo saw a strong December 2020, with half of the top 20 best-selling games of the month being published by Nintendo.

Cyberpunk 2077 debuted as the second best-selling game of December, and the 19th best-selling game of 2020, despite the lack of digital tracking.

The Last of Us: Part II finished 2020 as the year’s best-selling PlayStation exclusive, and the sixth best selling game overall. The game now ranks as the third best-selling Sony-published game in U.S. history in dollar sales, trailing only Marvel’s Spider-Man, and 2018’s God of War.