Circana, which you may know better as NPD Group, has released its gaming industry sales analysis for March 2023. Given that it’s the biggest launch of the month, it probably comes as no surprise that resident evil 4 has dominated the all-format sales chart for the month, but has yet to beat Hogwarts Legacy off its roost year to date.
Like last month (and every other month), Circana’s March 2023 analysis was published on Twitter by analyst Mat Piscatella. According to Piscatella’s data, resident evil 4 surpassed the software sales charts in all formats last month, with Hogwarts Legacy and MLB The Show 23 occupying second and third place respectively. Fourth and fifth place were taken by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and The Last of Us Part I.
When it comes to year-to-date sales, resident evil 4 could not bring down Hogwarts Legacy from his throne. The magical open-world game remains number one for 2023 as a whole, with modern warfare ii and resident evil 4 in second and third. Fourth place all year so far goes to MLB The Show 23and fifth place goes to EA and Motive’s Dead space Redo.
Total spending on premium games (as opposed to DLC or free-to-play offerings, for example) fell compared to last March. However, you shouldn’t read too much into it; since last march we saw games like elden ring and Forbidden Horizon West topping the charts, it’s not an easy comparison, as Piscatella says.
Hardware spending, on the other hand, rose 10% compared to March last year, marking the second-highest hardware spending for March in US history. Hardware growth was driven primarily by PS5 earnings, according to Piscatella, and Sony’s console ranked first in terms of unit sales and dollars for both March and 2023 overall.
As usual, the entire Piscatella thread contains a lot of fun nerdy insights into the state of the gaming industry right now. If you’re interested in spending numbers and other data, I highly recommend giving it a read. Keep an eye on the April forecast, which will no doubt be dominated by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and it will be available next month.