As the seasons move further into 2025, the U.S. is still experiencing a decline in consumer spending on video game hardware, content, and accessories.
A March report by Circana reveals that U.S. consumer spending in this sector decreased by 6%, totaling $4.7 billion compared to last year. This decline puts year-to-date spending for 2025 at $13.7 billion, 9% lower than the pace set in 2024.
Additionally, spending on video game content has fallen by 4% year-over-year, amounting to $4.2 billion.
Despite the sector’s overall decline, some categories have shown growth. Non-mobile subscriptions increased by 11%, and digital premium downloads on consoles rose by 12%. The month’s best-selling title was Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, which has also become the second best-selling game of 2025 year-to-date. MLB The Show 25 took second place.
In the mobile content category, Sensor Tower reported that Monopoly Go! remained the top game, followed by Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga.
“While March 2025 did represent a contraction in the US mobile games market over March 2024, the top games were, in general, doing quite well,” says Samuel Aune of Sensor Tower. “Six out of the top ten saw double-digit growth month over month, with Pokémon GO seeing 42% increase in consumer spend thanks to the Unova Tour event. Candy Crush Saga saw 12% growth, allowing the venerable puzzle game to retake the No. 3 spot from Last War: Survival, which only grew 1.6%. Coin Master also had an excellent month, with 15% growth.”
Video game hardware spending fell 25% compared to a year ago, to $286 million. This marks the lowest March hardware spending total since 2019. Video game accessory spending in March fell 11% compared to a year ago.
PlayStation 5 hardware dollar sales fell 26% compared to a year ago. Despite the fall, the platform held on to its first-place lead in dollar and unit sales within the market.
For more information on this Circana study, visit circana.com.
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