May 2021 NPD: Overall Up 3% Year-Over-Year
The entire video game industry saw growth for May of 2021 when compared to a year ago, which is extremely impressive given the circumstances. Last year we were in the middle of the pandemic and people were spending money on home entertainment since there was very little to do outside the house. Now most restrictions have lifted and yet somehow sales were even higher this time around! From Mat Piscatella and ResetEra, we get the following data points for May 2021:
May 2021 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories increased 3% when compared to a year ago, reaching $4.5 billion. Year-to-date consumer spending totaled $24.0 billion, a 17% increase compared to the same period in 2020.
May performance experienced a return to YoY growth following a slight dip in April. Gains in Subscription, Console, PC and VR content spending drove the positive variance. May 2021 hardware sales gained 5% compared to the prior year.
Hardware
May video game hardware dollar sales increased 5% when compared to May 2020, to $244 million. Year-to-date hardware consumer spending totaled $1.9 billion, a 36% increase compared with a year ago.
Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars during the month of May, as well as 2021 year-to-date.
Accessories
May 2021 spending on video game accessories fell 8% compared to a year ago, to $142 million. Year-to-date accessory sales reached $1.0 billion, an increase of 17% when compared to the same period in 2020.
Year-to-date sales of Steering Wheel accessories have gained more than 45% when compared to a year ago. The Logitech G920 Driving Force Racing Wheel is 2021’s best-selling Steering Wheel year-to-date.
Content
Resident Evil: Village was the best-selling game of May 2021. Resident Evil: Village generated the highest launch month sales of any 2021 release to date, and after one month in market the title ranked as the 2nd best-selling game of 2021 YTD.
Resident Evil: Village was the best-selling game of the month on both PlayStation and Xbox platforms, as well as across tracked titles on Steam.
Days Gone was the 20th best-selling game of May 2021, after placing 247th on the April chart. Days Gone was released to the PC platform via Steam on May 17th, 2021.
[Source: ResetEra]
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
