The Nintendo Switch has officially taken the crown as the best-selling video game console in the United States for 2022. TheSwitch, originally released in 2017, offers an enormous selection of first and third-party games, including several hit indie titles. Nearly all of them can be bought and directly downloaded onto the console. The mobility factor likely played a large role in purchasing decisions as well. Undocking the console from its base to play console-quality triple-A titles on the go has certainly helped draw in buyers who may have been hesitant in past years.The rankings come from NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella, Executive Director & Video Game Industry Analyst at The NPD Group. NPD is the premier video game market research organization that has been measuring video game industry purchasing trends since 1995. The NPD’s data for the year 2022 shows consumers collectively spent $56.6 billion on video game software and hardware, representing a -5% decrease in consumer spending compared to 2021. NPD speculates that the data collectively represents an upward trend that should carry through 2023,as supply chain issueslingering from the Covid-19 pandemic resolve.RELATED:10 Most Played Games of 2022 List Proves That Some Games Have Serious LongevityThe Nintendo Switchhas been the industry sales leaderby units sold every year since its release in 2017. The Switch not only made it out of 2022 as the overall sales leader but also has the honor of selling the most units specifically in the month of December when shoppers are buying gifts for the holiday season. December sales rankings by console mirror the yearly trend, with the Switch leading the pack, followed by the PS5, then the Xbox Series X/S.
Nintendo’s dominance of the console market is in large part due to the Switch’s relatively affordable price point compared to Microsoft and Sony’s console offerings. When the figures are adjusted for most money earned through console sales overall, however, Sony’s PlayStation 5 came out on top for 2022. A base Switch comes in at around $300 US while a base PlayStation 5 is around $500. NPD did not release specific sales figures, only rankings. As for thebest-selling games of 2022,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2came out on top, beating out other notable top earners likeElden Ring,God of War Ragnarök, andMadden NFL 23.
A contributing factor in NPD’s rosy outlook for the video game industry in 2023 outside of lingering pandemic-related delays can be attributed largely to upcoming releases of long-awaited follow-up entries to smash hit titles, likeThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomandMarvel’s Spider-Man 2. Then there are new titles from trusted developers, likeStarfield, Bethesda Game Studio’s first major single-player release since 2015’sFallout 4, that will likely end up topping sales charts.
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