NPD Group, the growing game market in the United States

according to NPD . groupGame industry sales in US dollars increased 2%, or +231 million, to $11.4 billion in January-June 2022. Unit sales were down 6%, and unit sales were up $11,30 by 8%.

Although growth in 2022 was rather weak, it comes after two years of record sales in 2021 and 2020, when sales of the US game industry increased by 20% and 18%, respectively. The average selling price of $11.30 is up 8% in line with the annual inflation rate. However, this is higher than last year’s 6% growth and last year’s 19% growth.

Four of the eleven superclasses monitored by the NPD recorded growth in 2022. Compared to 2019, ten superclasses recorded a positive three-year compound annual growth rate. Sports and outdoor games continued to lead the supercar category with sales of $2.7 billion. Soft gaming had the highest dollar gain of $301 million and the fastest dollar growth of 43%.

“Although the gaming industry has returned to 2% growth, this is an impressive achievement, as only 6 of the 14 sectors the NPD is monitoring saw growth in the first half of 2022, after two years of consumers spending extra time.‘, he stated Julie Lynettea consultant to the American game industry, “This shows the resilience of the US game industry in this period of economic uncertainty“.

For the super class of plush, Squishmallows, Magic Mixies and Disney were the main drivers of growth. Squishmallows recorded 7 of the 15 best-selling games in the entire gaming industry from January to June 2022. Discovery and other games grew by 28%. The NBA, NFL, and MLB have dominated the growth of the sports trading card category. Action figures and accessories have also grown from two numbers. With the release of Jurassic World: Dominion in June, Jurassic World ownership experienced the strongest growth, followed by Funko Pop! and by Sonic the Hedgehog, who also released a movie in April. Finally, building sets increased by 8%, with LEGO Star Wars experiencing the strongest growth, followed by LEGO Creator Expert and LEGO Technic.

4 key points have been identified for consumers for the period from June 2022:

1. The number of adults without children in the family exceeded the number of families with children. Families without children grew by 4% while families with children grew by only 1%.
2. Households with incomes above $100,000 grew by 6%, while incomes under $50,000 decreased by 2%.
3. Buyer penetration increased 0.1%, resulting in a total gain of approximately 155,000 buyers. Buyer penetration has remained mostly stable throughout the year, which is positive as it indicates that the industry is maintaining the significant increase in new buyers seen in recent years. Overall, the gaming industry saw an increase of around 16 million buyers compared to 2019.
4. Consumers take fewer trips to buy toys, buy fewer toys per trip, but spend more. The trend of making fewer trips and buying fewer games is driven by traditional stores, while in the online channel, consumers take more trips and buy more games per trip, which leads to stronger growth of the online channel.

“Despite tough times ahead for US consumers, I expect the gaming industry to continue to outperform other product categories for the rest of the year.“Happy Lynette.

PixelLoverK3 image from Pixabay

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