Gaming Industry Sees Slight Overall Decrease for 2013, Increase in Digital Sales - The UpStream

Gaming Industry Sees Slight Overall Decrease for 2013, Increase in Digital Sales

posted Sunday Jan 19, 2014 by Nicholas DiMeo

Last month, I promised that after I reported Black Friday sales numbers for both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, that I would bring you the full holiday numbers once they became available. This week, I have December numbers and financials for the entire year for the gaming industry, so I guess those will have to do. All of these numbers are for the US.

We'll start with the total sales for the year, and while the overall gaming industry dropped over two percent compared to last year, things are still looking up for all parties involved. Digital sales saw a huge boost this year, going up almost $1 billion to $24.67 billion, compared to $23.97 billion from last year. Retail sales on the whole, as mentioned, were down to $12.97 billion from $13.27 billion the year prior. Hardware sales were naturally up by five percent to $4.26 billion. Console and portable game sales are lumped together and saw a drop of 9 percent year-over-year to $6.12 billion and accessories were up 3 percent to $2.6 billion. It should also be noted that the loving, caring bunch of PC enthusiasts saw their overall sales drop from $7.09 billion to $6.34 billion this year, an 11 percent decrease.

For video game sales, it should be no shock to anyone that GTA V took home the top spot, with COD: Ghosts and Madden NFL 25 rounding out the top three. Also on that list were Battlefield 4, Assassin's Creed IV, NBA 2K14, COD: Black Ops II, Just Dance 2014, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Disney Infinity. Skylanders was left off the top ten this year.

And now for the console sales, which took center stage as the "Flame War of the Year," consuming the Internet from June through Christmas. The top selling hardware for the month of December was, you guessed it, the Nintendo 3DS. Oh, you wanted Xbox One versus PlayStation 4? Both consoles experienced issues in the distribution chain and would sometimes have trouble keeping up with supply. Some would argue this was done intentionally, but regardless of the reasoning, customers sometimes left stores empty-handed. Here's what we know, though. Microsoft moved 908,000 Xbox Ones in December and 643,000 Xbox 360s. Sony has not yet provided specific numbers, and has only said that its moved 4.2 million PS4 worldwide, leaving out how many sold here in the States for comparison. However, Dan Race, a spokesman for Sony, said that,

According to the latest NPD report, PlayStation 4 remains the cumulative leader for next-gen console sales in the U.S. since its launch on Nov. 15. We sold every PS4 available at retail in the U.S. and were out of stock in December due to overwhelming consumer demand. It's clear that the PS4's gaming and entertainment features are resonating with large audiences and we're doing our best to provide additional inventory in all of the 53 countries where it's available.

So, there's that. I was certainly hoping for more well-rounded and definitive numbers from all parties involved here but I guess we will have to wait a bit longer to find out who came out the true winner. It is interesting to read that Sony has come out with worldwide numbers, after first attacking Microsoft for doing the same when it came to the Xbox One's first week sales report. So, until we see more official statements from these two, I guess I'll end this in the way most things go lately: Everyone's a winner!

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