EA Sports College Football 25 has become the best-selling sports game ever launched in the U.S., according to industry-tracking firm Circana. The revival of EA’s college football franchise has been doing good business since it launched in September, and even recently won the Game Award for Best Sports/Racing Game for this year. Its success is a standout in a relatively quiet month in U.S.-based video game sales.
November 2024 Dollar Sales, MillionsNov2023Nov2024ChangeTotal Video Game Sales$6,171$5,755-7%Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC and VR platforms)$4,889$4,455-9%Video Game Hardware$924$9270%Video Game Accessories$358$3734%*Mobile spending provided by Sensor Tower
“Projected November 2024 U.S. consumer spending on video game hardware, content and accessories fell 7% when compared to a year ago, to $5.8 billion,” said Mat Piscatella, Circana’s executive producer for games reports. “The decline was driven in part by the debut of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in October this year, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) launched during the November tracking month a year ago.”
Hardware sales for the year have been on a downward trend for months — this is the first time since July that the sales change hasn’t been a negative. However, this is likely due to the dip in software sales in November 2023 (which were down 24% year-over-year) rather than exceptional sales in November 2024. Piscatella also notes that hardware sales for PlayStation 5 grew, while sales of Xbox Series consoles and Nintendo Switch were down.
Year-to-Date 2024 Dollar Sales, Millions2023YTD2024YTDChangeTotal Video Game Sales$51,012$51,1160%Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC and VR platforms)$43,796$44,8782%Video Game Hardware$4,897$3,742-24%Video Game Accessories$2,319$2,4958%*Mobile spending provided by Sensor Tower
Piscatella notes that the PlayStation 5’s boost in sales comes in part from the launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro. “PlayStation 5 Pro accounted for 19% of total PlayStation 5 units sold in the month and 28% of dollars. Launch month dollar sales of PlayStation 5 Pro were more than 50% higher than the November 2016 launch month sales of Play …