U.S. Video Game Sales Drop 6% in September, Circana Says

According to the latest data from Circana, the projected U.S. total spending on video game hardware, content, and accessories dropped by 6% this September, when compared to the same period last year.

This decline was driven by a 44% drop in hardware spending and a 3% decrease in content spending. 

The top ten best-selling games in September 2024 were calculated with a recording period of Sep. 1- Oct. 5.

The top-selling video game of September was EA Sports FC 25. In September 2024, it had double-digit percentage growth when compared to its launch month of September 2023. EA Sports FC reached the highest U.S. launch month dollar sales of any soccer game released to date.

At No. 2, Astro Bot was the second best-selling game of September, being the 25th best-seller of the 2024 year-to-date.

In mobile content, Sensor Tower reports the top 10 games by U.S. consumer spending in September.

“The big story this month is Brawl Stars. which grew its U.S. spend a whopping 64% month over month, moving up four places in this list. Brawl Stars held a groundbreaking collab with SpongeBob SquarePants, which led to record breaking U.S. spend in a single day for the game,” says Samuel Aune of Sensor Tower. “Another huge story was Last War: Survival‘s downloads exploding 42% month over month, reaching an all-time daily high of 430,000 and a new daily velocity of downloads around triple what Last War: Survival was pulling before. The downloads spike coincided with a new update to the game and accompanied by UA campaigns on Instagram and TikTok, where it reached No. 10 for share of voice on the social ad network.”

Mobile content spending increased by $1.7 billion in the year-to-date period this September. Console content spending fell by $0.8 billion over the same period.

PlayStation 5 led September’s hardware market in unit and dollar sales, with the Xbox Series ranking 2nd in dollars and Nintendo Switch No. 2 in units sold.