Mat Piscatella, executive director of games at consumer tracking firm Circana, posted his monthly analysis of games sales on Monday for May 2024. His findings show that spending on video games and hardware are down 6% compared to May of last year, but overall year-to-date spending is 2% higher. So video game sales are generally stagnant, trending downward.
However, there is some good news here for PlayStation. Ghost of Tsushima, which came out on May 16 for PC, hit the top spot on the top-selling games chart, beating other new releases like Homeworld 3 (at No. 14) and F1 24 (at No. 18). Other Sony games in the top 20 include Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Helldivers‘ continued dominance and Ghost of Tsushima‘s success show that Sony’s PC strategy is paying off. While Tsushima sold extremely well when it launched, that was back in 2020 on the PlayStation 4 (and 2021 on the PlayStation 5). While it received a multiplayer mode and the Iki Island expansion along with a director’s cut, that was in 2021. And the PC port appears to have generated some interest on PS5, although it’s been steadily in the top 20 on PlayStation’s charts.
May 2024 Top 20 Best-Selling Premium Games – U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content) pic.twitter.com/V751fMRtbl
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 8, 2024
Meanwhile, Xbox’s big first-party release in May, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, did not make the top 20 in terms of sales, Piscatella said. It was ranked at No. 21 on the Xbox Series X/S, No. 12 on Xbox Game Pass in terms of player engagement, and No. 37 overall. However, Minecraft is still (and will always) doing well in seventh place, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is in third. Fallout’s recent resurgence also continues, with Fallout 4 at No. 11, and Fallout 76 was the 11th-most-played title on Game Pass.
In terms of hardware, Sony wins again. The PlayStation 5 sold the most units, followed by the Switch and then the Xbox Series X/S. The PlayStation Portal — Sony’s handheld streaming console — is the top selling accessory both in May and for 2024 so far.
