SameTeem
Search titles only
By:
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Home
Forums
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
What's new
Featured content
Media
Resources
Free TeamSpeak Channel
TeamSpeak
TeamSpeak
Vote
Rank System
Make a Channel
Free Channel Information
Servers
Sourcebans
New posts
SameTeem
Home
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
Featured content
Media
Resources
Free TeamSpeak Channel
TeamSpeak
Vote
Rank System
Make a Channel
Free Channel Information
Servers
Sourcebans
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Navigation
Install the app
Install
More options
Contact us
Close Menu
Download TeamSpeak Today
Proudly sponsored by TeamSpeak
Forums
News and Announcements
Gaming News
Video Game Physical Software and Hardware Sales Just Had the Worst November in the U.S. Since 1995
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Admin" data-source="post: 69589" data-attributes="member: 1"><p><img src="https://assets-prd.ignimgs.com/2023/11/16/best-consoles-1700170299771.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></p><p>November 2025 was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. While we traditionally think of November as a huge sales month what with Black Friday and all, November 2025 was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar sales the U.S. has seen since 1995.</p><p></p><p>That's according to Circana's monthly report, which paints a pretty dismal picture of last month's commercial performance. The industry in the U.S. saw declines across the board in hardware, accessories, and console spending for an overall drop of 4% year-over-year, at $5.9 billion in total spending.</p><p></p><h3>Hardware</h3><p></p><p>More specifically, hardware spending was down a whopping 27% year-over-year to $695 million, the lowest hardware spending total for November since 2005's $455 million. Even worse, unit sales reached 1.6 million, which is the lowest November total since 1995's 1.4 million.</p><p></p><p>And that's representative of declines across the board. Xbox Series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year. PS5 sales were down over 40%, and combined unit sales of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were down over 10% from Switch sales last year, despite this being a launch year for the Nintendo Switch 2.</p><p></p><p></p><p>What's going on? As pointed out by Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, video game hardware has never been more expensive, reaching an all-time November high of $439 per unit, up 11% year-over-year. The Xbox specifically saw its average price per unit increase by over 30%, perhaps confirming one reason why folks aren't so keen to buy Xboxes specifically.</p><p></p><p>With the Nintendo Switch 2, Piscatella says he's watching its sales "very closely," and offers this analysis of its current situation:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There's one piece of hardware that's doing okay, and it's not what you'd expect: <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/a-box-that-looks-like-the-ouya-and-kinect-had-a-kid-outsold-the-ps5-in-the-us-the-week-before-thanksgiving" target="_blank">the NEX Playground</a>. It was the third best-selling piece of video game hardware of November by unit sales, surpassing the Xbox Series, while the more expensive Xbox Series beat it in dollar sales (the PS5 was first in both categories, the Switch 2 was second). Piscatella calls the NEX Playground a "remarkable story," noting that while everyone else is having a bad time, it just had a superb November by comparison:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><h3>Software</h3><p></p><p>Things aren't looking much better on the content side. While Circana reports that content spending was up 1% year-over-year to $4.8 billion, that's with subscription spending rising 16% and 2% growth in mobile. Physical software sales, meanwhile, dropped 14% year-over-year to the worst November since 1995, the year Circana began tracking them.</p><p></p><p>Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 put the Call of Duty franchise back on top for another debut month in November as the month's best-seller, marking the 18th year in a row a Call of Duty has launched to the top of the charts. That said, Circana reports that the franchise saw a double-digit percentage full game dollar sales decline when compared to November 2024.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It's a little tricky to make precise comparisons between Black Ops 7 and its predecessor, Black Ops 6, given both games launched into Xbox Game Pass, and Black Ops 6 released in October last year, not November. Still, Piscatella tells me that Black Ops 7's full game dollar sales finished below those of Black Ops 6's last November. Additionally, Black Ops 7 is currently the seventh best-selling game of the year-to-date, and Piscatella anticipates that its rival, Battlefield 6, will end the year as the best-selling game of 2025. This isn't the first time in recent memory it's been beaten, with <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/hogwarts-legacy-beats-modern-warfare-3-as-best-selling-game-of-2023-in-the-us" target="_blank">Hogwarts Legacy coming out on top in 2023</a>. Notably, that year, Hogwarts Legacy beat Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, which did <em>not</em> launch into Game Pass, while Black Ops 7 this year did, almost certainly making its actual dollar sales total lower as a result.</p><p></p><p>It's worth noting as well that accessories spending was down 13% year-over-year.</p><p></p><h3>Red Flags</h3><p></p><p>This is shaping up to be a pretty weird year. I asked Piscatella what he makes of all this, and what it means for the games industry. He pointed out that much of the story remains to be told in December, and that it's possible consumers are waiting for better deals closer to the holidays. Alternatively, it's possible that economic factors and price of consoles are pushing people to hold off on gaming purchases. Here's what Piscatella had to say:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>We won't get the December and full-year results in until January, which will tell us a lot more about whether the games industry is about to enter a lean period, or if this November was just a goofy one-off.</p><p></p><h2>November 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:</h2> <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (NEW)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Battlefield 6</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">NBA 2K26</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Madden NFL 26</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">EA Sports FC 26</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Pokemon Legends: Z-A*</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Ghost of Yotei</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">EA Sports College Football 26</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Minecraft*</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Kirby Air Riders (NEW)*</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (NEW)*</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Outer Worlds 2</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Donkey Kong Bananza*</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Marvel's Spider-Man 2</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Red Dead Redemption II</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Grand Theft Auto V</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Borderlands 4</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Forza Horizon 5</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Digimon Story: Time Stranger</li> </ol><p></p><p><em>* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana's data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to <a href="mailto:rvalentine@ign.com">rvalentine@ign.com</a>.</em></p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/video-game-physical-software-and-hardware-sales-just-had-the-worst-november-in-the-us-since-1995" target="_blank">Continue reading...</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Admin, post: 69589, member: 1"] [IMG]https://assets-prd.ignimgs.com/2023/11/16/best-consoles-1700170299771.png[/IMG] November 2025 was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. While we traditionally think of November as a huge sales month what with Black Friday and all, November 2025 was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar sales the U.S. has seen since 1995. That's according to Circana's monthly report, which paints a pretty dismal picture of last month's commercial performance. The industry in the U.S. saw declines across the board in hardware, accessories, and console spending for an overall drop of 4% year-over-year, at $5.9 billion in total spending. [HEADING=2]Hardware[/HEADING] More specifically, hardware spending was down a whopping 27% year-over-year to $695 million, the lowest hardware spending total for November since 2005's $455 million. Even worse, unit sales reached 1.6 million, which is the lowest November total since 1995's 1.4 million. And that's representative of declines across the board. Xbox Series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year. PS5 sales were down over 40%, and combined unit sales of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were down over 10% from Switch sales last year, despite this being a launch year for the Nintendo Switch 2. What's going on? As pointed out by Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, video game hardware has never been more expensive, reaching an all-time November high of $439 per unit, up 11% year-over-year. The Xbox specifically saw its average price per unit increase by over 30%, perhaps confirming one reason why folks aren't so keen to buy Xboxes specifically. With the Nintendo Switch 2, Piscatella says he's watching its sales "very closely," and offers this analysis of its current situation: There's one piece of hardware that's doing okay, and it's not what you'd expect: [URL='https://www.ign.com/articles/a-box-that-looks-like-the-ouya-and-kinect-had-a-kid-outsold-the-ps5-in-the-us-the-week-before-thanksgiving']the NEX Playground[/URL]. It was the third best-selling piece of video game hardware of November by unit sales, surpassing the Xbox Series, while the more expensive Xbox Series beat it in dollar sales (the PS5 was first in both categories, the Switch 2 was second). Piscatella calls the NEX Playground a "remarkable story," noting that while everyone else is having a bad time, it just had a superb November by comparison: [HEADING=2]Software[/HEADING] Things aren't looking much better on the content side. While Circana reports that content spending was up 1% year-over-year to $4.8 billion, that's with subscription spending rising 16% and 2% growth in mobile. Physical software sales, meanwhile, dropped 14% year-over-year to the worst November since 1995, the year Circana began tracking them. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 put the Call of Duty franchise back on top for another debut month in November as the month's best-seller, marking the 18th year in a row a Call of Duty has launched to the top of the charts. That said, Circana reports that the franchise saw a double-digit percentage full game dollar sales decline when compared to November 2024. It's a little tricky to make precise comparisons between Black Ops 7 and its predecessor, Black Ops 6, given both games launched into Xbox Game Pass, and Black Ops 6 released in October last year, not November. Still, Piscatella tells me that Black Ops 7's full game dollar sales finished below those of Black Ops 6's last November. Additionally, Black Ops 7 is currently the seventh best-selling game of the year-to-date, and Piscatella anticipates that its rival, Battlefield 6, will end the year as the best-selling game of 2025. This isn't the first time in recent memory it's been beaten, with [URL='https://www.ign.com/articles/hogwarts-legacy-beats-modern-warfare-3-as-best-selling-game-of-2023-in-the-us']Hogwarts Legacy coming out on top in 2023[/URL]. Notably, that year, Hogwarts Legacy beat Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, which did [I]not[/I] launch into Game Pass, while Black Ops 7 this year did, almost certainly making its actual dollar sales total lower as a result. It's worth noting as well that accessories spending was down 13% year-over-year. [HEADING=2]Red Flags[/HEADING] This is shaping up to be a pretty weird year. I asked Piscatella what he makes of all this, and what it means for the games industry. He pointed out that much of the story remains to be told in December, and that it's possible consumers are waiting for better deals closer to the holidays. Alternatively, it's possible that economic factors and price of consoles are pushing people to hold off on gaming purchases. Here's what Piscatella had to say: We won't get the December and full-year results in until January, which will tell us a lot more about whether the games industry is about to enter a lean period, or if this November was just a goofy one-off. [HEADING=1]November 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:[/HEADING] [LIST=1] [*]Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (NEW) [*]Battlefield 6 [*]NBA 2K26 [*]Madden NFL 26 [*]EA Sports FC 26 [*]Pokemon Legends: Z-A* [*]Ghost of Yotei [*]EA Sports College Football 26 [*]Minecraft* [*]Kirby Air Riders (NEW)* [*]Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (NEW)* [*]The Outer Worlds 2 [*]Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds [*]Donkey Kong Bananza* [*]Marvel's Spider-Man 2 [*]Red Dead Redemption II [*]Grand Theft Auto V [*]Borderlands 4 [*]Forza Horizon 5 [*]Digimon Story: Time Stranger [/LIST] [I]* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana's data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email]rvalentine@ign.com[/email].[/I] [url="https://www.ign.com/articles/video-game-physical-software-and-hardware-sales-just-had-the-worst-november-in-the-us-since-1995"]Continue reading...[/url] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
News and Announcements
Gaming News
Video Game Physical Software and Hardware Sales Just Had the Worst November in the U.S. Since 1995
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top
