Undoubtedly, gaming in all shapes and forms has taken a rampant increase as the world practices social distancing and staying at home. Now, new data from SuperData, the world’s leading provider of market intelligence, has shown just how much gaming worldwide has increased as of late.
Most notably of course is the worldwide increase of spending on digital games reached $10 billion (~RM43.6 billion) in March, making it the highest monthly total ever. Which is no surprise considering that video games is one avenue for entertainment as the Covid-19 pandemic keeps people at home.
The total digital avenue was up 11 percent year-over-year from March 2019, which was $9 billion (~RM39.2 billion).
Added to that, both console and premium PC earnings also rose dramatically as the global lockdown took place.
Premium console revenue rose 64% from February to March ($883M to $1.5B) and premium PC revenue rose 56% during the same period ($363M to $567M). It should be noted that these game types tend to be more popular in North America and Europe, where the Covid-19 prevention measures expanded dramatically in March.
But the biggest takeaway from this report (for me) is the fact that Animal Crossing: New Horizons tops digital units sold in a single month. They recorded 5 million units sold, making it the most digital units sold of any console game in history, in a single month. The Nintendo-published title broke the console record for monthly digital game sales, which was previously held by Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII.
To measure how impressive this is, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is only on a single platform, the Nintendo Switch. In comparison to Black Ops IIII, which sold on multiple consoles, as well as the rest of the games on the list. FIFA 20, Doom Eternal, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, all multi-platform games, all falter in the eyes of Animal Crossing.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons also roughly matched the first-month digital sales of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Pokémon Sword and Shield put together. That’s two blockbuster Nintendo games, and both combined couldn’t compare to the latest iteration of Animal Crossing.
