Port Washington, N.Y. — Video game sales continued their upward momentum in 2015, propelled by strong results in portable hardware.
Total video game sales — which include hardware, console and portable software, and accessories — reached $955.6 million, up 8 percent from February 2014.
Hardware rose 10 percent to reach $378.2 million, while software rose 7 percent (to $338.9 million) and accessories rose 8 percent (to $238.5 million).
Portable hardware sales rose a whopping 153 percent for the month vs. the prior-year period, which helped compensate for the 5 percent decline in console hardware, according to NPD games industry analyst director Liam Callahan.
“Gains in eighth-generation console sales could not offset the 41 percent loss in dollar sales of seventh-generation hardware,” he said.
Callahan also noted that February marks the first time since the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One that the top 10 console software SKUs were all from eighth-generation consoles — “a sign of consumer’s further transition away from seventh-generation consoles towards the new console generation.”
Accessories saw 8 percent growth, which Callahan attributed to continued growth of video game point and subscription cards, and interactive gaming toys. Toys, in particular, rose 34 percent vs. the prior-year period.
The No. 1 selling software title for February was “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D” for the Nintendo 3DS.
