General Gaming 2022 Sales: Top 5 games (COD, Elden Ring, Madden, God of War: Ragnarok, LEGO Star Wars), December 2022 NPD: PS5 #1 dollars #2 units, Switch #1 units #2 dollars

[SaysWho?]

December 2022:

 

 

2022 Overall:

 

 

 

2022 platform sales

 

Playstation:

 

 

Nintendo:

 

 

Microsoft:

 

[best3444]

Digital sales not included? 

[SaysWho?]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

Digital sales not included? 

 

It is included. The only time it isn't is if the publisher won't divulge the information.

[best3444]

11 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

It is included. The only time it isn't is if the publisher won't divulge the information.

 

I fucking see now. I'm an idiot carry on.

[crispy4000]

Xbox Series consoles and PS5 sales leak.

 

PS5 US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 277K
Jul-22: 301K
Aug-22: 341K
Sep-22: 494K
Oct-22: 456K
Nov-22: 1328K
LTD as of Nov-22: 10592K

XBX US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 260K
Jul-22: 247K
Aug-22: 251K
Sep-22: 288K
Oct-22: 261K
Nov-22: 730K
LTD as of Nov-22: 8736K

Doesn’t feel like MS is behind by much in the US.  But it appears Sony is widening the gap.

[crispy4000]

An observation: 9 out of the top 20 of the year are family oriented non-sports games.  Think about how many big publishers don’t bother to seriously compete in that space.  To Nintendo goes the spoils?

 

There’s more apathy towards family-friendly investments from big 3rd parties than ever.  They rarely make games targeting younger audiences, probably assuming that indies, mobile and Fortnite have it covered.  There should be more opportunities there.

 

Lego games will keep selling bucketloads.  Just look at how high it got on Microsoft’s chart.  Makes me think Harry Potter could be big.

[legend]

Jesus Christ could people please stop handing out money for Call of Duty.

[stepee]

6 minutes ago, legend said:

Jesus Christ could people please stop handing out money for Call of Duty.

 

I think Microsoft might be able to help with this 

[XxEvil AshxX]

15 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

Xbox Series consoles and PS5 sales leak.

 

PS5 US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 277K
Jul-22: 301K
Aug-22: 341K
Sep-22: 494K
Oct-22: 456K
Nov-22: 1328K
LTD as of Nov-22: 10592K

XBX US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 260K
Jul-22: 247K
Aug-22: 251K
Sep-22: 288K
Oct-22: 261K
Nov-22: 730K
LTD as of Nov-22: 8736K

Doesn’t feel like MS is behind by much in the US.  But it appears Sony is widening the gap.

 

The Series S has been mopping up in other territories though. It's good to see. I don't want to see one platform completely dominate. A good tight competition is far more interesting.

 

 

14 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

Lego games will keep selling bucketloads.  Just look at how high it got on Microsoft’s chart, makes me think Harry Potter could be big.

 

Harry Potter is going to be a juggernaut. One of the few games I will probably be picking up day one.

[SaysWho?]

15 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

An observation: 9 out of the top 20 of the year are family oriented non-sports games.  Think about how many big publishers don’t bother to seriously compete in that space.  To Nintendo goes the spoils?

 

I've wondered the same thing for a while. It's ripe for some AAA input!

[crispy4000]

1 hour ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

The Series S has been mopping up in other territories though. It's good to see. I don't want to see one platform completely dominate. A good tight competition is far more interesting.

 

Maybe it's leading to a tighter gap, but going by Europe, I wouldn't say that's accurate.

 

Microsoft is putting up a much better fight in the UK, it's closer there than it is here.  PS5 still ended up ahead of Series consoles there YTD in 2022.  As for the rest of Europe, the only country we know for sure that Microsoft outsold Sony last year is Norway.

 

Sony's price hikes clearly had an impact, with PS5 sales slowing significantly YoY.  Traditionally the US is Microsoft's stronghold.  This could be the generation we see that change, even if Microsoft doesn't necessarily pull ahead in Europe.

[LazyPiranha]

1 hour ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

 

 

 

Harry Potter is going to be a juggernaut. One of the few games I will probably be picking up day one.

Is it though?  It’s hard to tell being in a weird internet bubble but it feels like Harry Potter has been losing a lot of steam lately.  The fantastic beasts movies are either on hiatus or straight up canned depending on who you believe and it seems like a lot of the fervor has just gone.  Harry Potter feels like a generational lightning in a bottle that has so far failed to capitalize on keeping the desire going.  I look at my son and the kids in his age group and basically none of them care about the franchise at all.  
 

The only discussion I hear about Hogwarts is about the politics of the thing as opposed to people genuinely excited for it.  I don’t think it’s going to bomb by any stretch and I’m well aware that bullshit culture wars nonsense can make the actual desire for something weird to read, but I am curious to see how well it does overall.  

[AbsolutSurgen]

16 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

An observation: 9 out of the top 20 of the year are family oriented non-sports games.  Think about how many big publishers don’t bother to seriously compete in that space.  To Nintendo goes the spoils?

 

There’s more apathy towards family-friendly investments from big 3rd parties than ever.  They rarely make games targeting younger audiences, probably assuming that indies, mobile and Fortnite have it covered.  There should be more opportunities there.

 

Lego games will keep selling bucketloads.  Just look at how high it got on Microsoft’s chart.  Makes me think Harry Potter could be big.

NPDs are anachronistic at this point -- particularly for the "family zone".  It completely excludes FTP (Roblox, Rocket League, Fortnite, etc.) and tablet/mobile gaming which are both extremely popular in the "family" space.

[crispy4000]

12 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

Is it though?  It’s hard to tell being in a weird internet bubble but it feels like Harry Potter has been losing a lot of steam lately.  The fantastic beasts movies are either on hiatus or straight up canned depending on who you believe and it seems like a lot of the fervor has just gone.  Harry Potter feels like a generational lightning in a bottle that has so far failed to capitalize on keeping the desire going.  I look at my son and the kids in his age group and basically none of them care about the franchise at all.  
 

The only discussion I hear about Hogwarts is about the politics of the thing as opposed to people genuinely excited for it.  I don’t think it’s going to bomb by any stretch and I’m well aware that bullshit culture wars nonsense can make the actual desire for something weird to read, but I am curious to see how well it does overall.  

 

Hogwarts Legacy Pre-Order Data Suggests Huge Debut for Game

GAMERANT.COM

---

Based on pre-sales data of Hogwarts Legacy on all platforms, the game is already expected to be one of the biggest games of 2023.

 

 

[nublood]

Call of Dudebro still no.1

[crispy4000]

2 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

NPDs are anachronistic at this point -- particularly for the "family zone".  It completely excludes FTP (Roblox, Rocket League, Fortnite, etc.) and tablet/mobile gaming which are both extremely popular in the "family" space.

To my point earlier, most of the biggest F2P family games started as indies.  Fortnite and Multiversus are the notable exceptions.

[TheLeon]

22 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

Is it though?  It’s hard to tell being in a weird internet bubble but it feels like Harry Potter has been losing a lot of steam lately.  The fantastic beasts movies are either on hiatus or straight up canned depending on who you believe and it seems like a lot of the fervor has just gone.  Harry Potter feels like a generational lightning in a bottle that has so far failed to capitalize on keeping the desire going.  I look at my son and the kids in his age group and basically none of them care about the franchise at all.  
 

The only discussion I hear about Hogwarts is about the politics of the thing as opposed to people genuinely excited for it.  I don’t think it’s going to bomb by any stretch and I’m well aware that bullshit culture wars nonsense can make the actual desire for something weird to read, but I am curious to see how well it does overall.  

The Fantastic Beasts movies fizzled because they’re pretty irredeemably bad. I think Harry Potter has definitely faded a little as a brand overall, partly because JKR has been so aggressively terrible for years, partly because there hasn’t been any good new material in a long time. I imagine there’s a ton of people in my age range alone (early 30’s) that maybe aren’t obsessed with it like when we were kids, but will absolutely devour a good game set in that world. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

35 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

Is it though? 

 

The absolutely bonkers crowd at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal says "Yes."

 

And yeah, the Fantastic Beasts movies fizzled because they sucked.

[AbsolutSurgen]

13 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

To my point earlier, most of the biggest F2P family games started as indies.  Fortnite and Multiversus are the notable exceptions.

What is your definition of a family game?  I agree that it is played by kids (but so is CoD) -- and it's rate T.

[crispy4000]

1 hour ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

What is your definition of a family game?  I agree that it is played by kids (but so is CoD) -- and it's rate T.

 

It could vary by game.  But generally speaking, not going for realism, with a visual style that appears family friendly.

 

Smash Bros and Fortnite are the sort of T-rated games I'd include in that.

[LazyPiranha]

Interesting, I had no idea presales for the game were that strong.

 

It’s hard to know with these things.  Yes, Harry Potter in universal studios can be packed, but it’s also a relatively small section of one of the biggest theme parks in the United States.  Muppet 3D still routinely fills the theater at Disney, I don’t view that as frothing demand for more Muppets shows.  And I don’t mean to suggest that the franchise is dead in the water, I just didn’t know if it still demands the same ludicrous audience as it used to.  

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

Interesting, I had no idea presales for the game were that strong.

 

It’s hard to know with these things.  Yes, Harry Potter in universal studios can be packed, but it’s also a relatively small section of one of the biggest theme parks in the United States.  Muppet 3D still routinely fills the theater at Disney, I don’t view that as frothing demand for more Muppets shows.  And I don’t mean to suggest that the franchise is dead in the water, I just didn’t know if it still demands the same ludicrous audience as it used to.  

I was a bit shocked that the HP paperback box set was the 29th most purchased item in the books category on Amazon for 2022

[BloodyHell]

7 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

The Series S has been mopping up in other territories though. It's good to see. I don't want to see one platform completely dominate. A good tight competition is far more interesting.

 

 

 

Harry Potter is going to be a juggernaut. One of the few games I will probably be picking up day one.

The xbox sales include Series s.

[BloodyHell]

5 hours ago, LazyPiranha said:

Is it though?  It’s hard to tell being in a weird internet bubble but it feels like Harry Potter has been losing a lot of steam lately.  The fantastic beasts movies are either on hiatus or straight up canned depending on who you believe and it seems like a lot of the fervor has just gone.  Harry Potter feels like a generational lightning in a bottle that has so far failed to capitalize on keeping the desire going.  I look at my son and the kids in his age group and basically none of them care about the franchise at all.  
 

The only discussion I hear about Hogwarts is about the politics of the thing as opposed to people genuinely excited for it.  I don’t think it’s going to bomb by any stretch and I’m well aware that bullshit culture wars nonsense can make the actual desire for something weird to read, but I am curious to see how well it does overall.  

Lol it’s been the best seller (not most preordered, most sales) for December and January. You have to literally not look to not hear about this game.

 

the original trailer is one of the highest viewed games trailers ever. There’s massive hype, and it looks incredible 

[BloodyHell]

5 hours ago, TheLeon said:

The Fantastic Beasts movies fizzled because they’re pretty irredeemably bad. I think Harry Potter has definitely faded a little as a brand overall, partly because JKR has been so aggressively terrible for years, partly because there hasn’t been any good new material in a long time. I imagine there’s a ton of people in my age range alone (early 30’s) that maybe aren’t obsessed with it like when we were kids, but will absolutely devour a good game set in that world. 

Forbes predicted 20m lifetime sales.

 

Twitter is an echo chamber. The franchise is still huge. Theres a boycott in the minds of a loud few.

[LazyPiranha]

Again, I’m not talking about boycotts, I’m just saying that in general I felt anecdotally the HP franchise has been fading from sight more than other, similar things.  Granted, I’m fully overlooking that a lot of those fans are now young adults as opposed to grade school kids so they’re not as visible to me as my kids aren’t that old.

[BloodyHell]

11 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

Again, I’m not talking about boycotts, I’m just saying that in general I felt anecdotally the HP franchise has been fading from sight more than other, similar things.  Granted, I’m fully overlooking that a lot of those fans are now young adults as opposed to grade school kids so they’re not as visible to me as my kids aren’t that old.

But sales of this game kinda disproves your anecdotal evidence.

we’ve only had bad movies for a decade now. Two months in a row its the highest selling game on steam and PS5.  Christmas month, and its not even out.

If this game is good, not great, just good, it will likely be the highest selling game of the year. The books still make yearly best seller lists, the theme parks are huge, but there’s been nothing big to drive the consumerism. Until now. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

6 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

  Traditionally the US is Microsoft's stronghold. 

It’s been MS’s strongest market, but MS hasn’t lead in the US to Sony since the Xbox 360. This is the closest it’s been since the PS4 and Xbone released 9 years ago. 

[crispy4000]

2 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

It’s been MS’s strongest market, but MS hasn’t lead in the US to Sony since the Xbox 360. This is the closest it’s been since the PS4 and Xbone released 9 years ago. 

That’s true, but you can blame that on Don Mattrick.  The US was theirs to lose last gen.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

8 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

That’s true, but you can blame that on Don Mattrick.  The US was theirs to lose last gen.

Oh definitely! I’m just saying, the US has only been MS’s stronghold for but a brief window of time overall. Trailing more years than they were on top by this point. I just wouldn’t use words like “traditionally” or “historically” when calling the US a a stronghold for MS. By this point those years seem more like an outlier. That’s all I was getting at. 
 

It could be said that the PS360 era was Sony’s to lose, and in the US they kind of did. A year after MS for a higher price and without a power bump to justify it. And MS had to go and make some of the same mistakes. But it is what it is, and the US was only lost to Sony for a brief period. And I wouldn’t even say “lost”, really. They ended up doing well. But they were behind MS. A situation that now looked like an anomaly. 
 

I don’t know if that will change much, if these sales figures are accurate. It means Sony is having no issues out producing and outselling the Xbox Series consoles. … but that’s why I kind of wonder if these numbers are good. We’ve been hearing that MS has been catching and even beating Sony at times because of the sales of the Series S. Yet none of those numbers show MS even close. It makes me think those numbers are strictly X vs PS5. 

[crispy4000]

4 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Oh definitely! I’m just saying, the US has only been MS’s stronghold for but a brief window of time overall. Trailing more years than they were on top by this point. I just wouldn’t use words like “traditionally” or “historically” when calling the US a a stronghold for MS. By this point those years seem more like an outlier. That’s all I was getting at. 

Meant it more in that it’s usually their best territory compared to everywhere else, in relation to their competition.

 

4 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I don’t know if that will change much, if these sales figures are accurate. It means Sony is having no issues out producing and outselling the Xbox Series consoles. … but that’s why I kind of wonder if these numbers are good. We’ve been hearing that MS has been catching and even beating Sony at times because of the sales of the Series S. Yet none of those numbers show MS even close. It makes me think those numbers are strictly X vs PS5. 

There’s always a chance the leakers didn’t specify it correctly.

 

I believe Microsoft said they were outselling PS5 for a few quarters, but that was for a time before this leak, when production issues were hampering both PS5 and Series X.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I think what’s interesting about Sony vs MS is we think of the PS like a Japanese gaming console. Which yeah, it is, but it has as many if not more Western made exclusives, with the same number of multi platform titles as the Xbox. Utilizing probably as many North American developer studios as the Xbox. Many if not most of PS’s biggest “internally” made hitters these days are Western made games. 

If you only like Wester made games, you’re still spoiled for choice on the PS. 
 

As an aside: it makes me wonder what Xbox leadership and their studios are doing wrong now that they seemingly did so right back during the Xbox 360. 

[crispy4000]

26 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I think what’s interesting about Sony vs MS is we think of the PS like a Japanese gaming console. Which yeah, it is, but it has as many if not more Western made exclusives, with the same number of multi platform titles as the Xbox. Utilizing probably as many North American developer studios as the Xbox. Many if not most of PS’s biggest “internally” made hitters these days are Western made games.

 

It's sad when you consider how much they've scaled back their Japanese studios.  These days, they're paying to keep big Japanese properties off Xbox instead of funding their own development.  Shows that they still realize the importance of being the Japanese box, but they're going about it in an unfortunate way.

 

Meanwhile Microsoft is buying many of the biggest FPS studios to lean into the Western ideal.  CRPG / WRPG studios too.  I think that's more of an explicit Western-focus than what Sony 1st party games are.

 

  

26 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

As an aside: it makes me wonder what Xbox leadership and their studios are doing wrong now that they seemingly did so right back during the Xbox 360. 

 

Microsoft got out of the gate early that gen, and had Gears of War out in the first year.  Combine that with Sony's pricing screw ups that gen and their multiplatform game performance woes, and the stars aligned for them.

 

If Microsoft wants to be in a 360-like position again, they probably need to have a stronger line-up in the first and second year of the console.  Perhaps more next-gen only games by that point too.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

More what I mean was with Xbox 360 it was like MS had hit after hit. Halo, Forza, Fable, Gears of War, all had their peak on the Xbox 360 compared to the Xbox One and now Series. Meanwhile Sony western studios feel like they did some of their best work on the PS4 and now PS5. 

[TwinIon]

Super happy to see great single player adventures represented by Elden Ring, Ragnarok, and Horizon. These are the kinds of games I love and I'm glad the best of breed can be profitable.

 

On the other hand, it's also sad that such low effort titles can crutch on an IP and be rewarded year after year. Sports games, Pokemon, COD, but I'd argue Pokemon is the worst offender. I was hoping that the move to 3d with the switch would be an opportunity for reinvention and to up the quality to the level the franchise deserves, but that hasn't really been the case.