Update: Circana’s Mat Piscatella has confirmed that the PS5 set a new February unit record for an individual PlayStation hardware platform in the United States last month. While that’s a lot of qualifiers, it effectively means the console sold a lot. Early estimates peg the platform’s results at over 500k units.
Original Article: Just a bit of housekeeping to get out of the way before we move forward with the latest US sales charts: NPD is now named Circana, but it’s compiling the same data you’ll already be familiar with, so nothing’s changed there. And unsurprisingly this was an absolutely enormous month for PS5, as it towered over its rivals in terms of both units and dollar sales. No one tell those lobbying congress members from Microsoft’s home state!
Growth in PS5 console sales actually reversed the trends of the US industry overall, driving it to a 29 per cent increase in hardware spending year-over-year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Last of Us continued to climb on the back of HBO’s critically acclaimed television show, with PS5 remake Part I finishing up in sixth position and PS4’s Part II rising 23 places to 18th place. Sony will surely be thrilled with those results.
It was a really good month for new software releases, too, particularly nicher Japanese franchises. Wild Hearts debuted in eighth position, for example, just in front of Like a Dragon: Ishin and Octopath Traveler 2. While it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions about just how many copies these titles sold, it’s good to see them in the top half of the charts. Unsurprisingly, Hogwarts Legacy topped the list, and is now the best-selling game in 2023 so far.
One other thing to note is that PSVR2’s launch helped offset a decline in controller spending, pushing sales in the Accessories sector up 13 per cent year-over-year. All in all, this was a pretty good month for the industry, with overall spend totalling $4.6 billion, up six per cent compared to February 2022.
Circana Software Top 20: February 2023
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Dead Space
- Madden NFL 23
- FIFA 23
- The Last of Us: Part 1
- Elden Ring
- Wild Hearts
- Like a Dragon: Ishin
- Octopath Traveler 2
- God of War Ragnarok
- Minecraft
- Mario Kart 8*
- Pokémon Scarlet & Violet*
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land*
- Company of Heroes 3
- Sonic Frontiers
- The Last of Us: Part 2
- NBA 2K23*
- Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line*
* Digital sales not included
[source twitter.com]
Comments 23
Bit confused about how PSVR2 help offset a decline in controller spending. Is it possible to buy separate VR2 controllers? Or is the whole device counted in the controller segment for some reason?
@thefourfoldroot1 I'll edit the article to make clearer, it's a segment for Accessories.
@get2sammyb
Ok, that makes sense; although I wouldn’t personally call it an accessory, there’s probably no good category for it currently. Maybe they should make a segment for “Parasite Platforms”
Curious to see if the PC release of last of us part 1 will move it further up the charts.not sure if npd tracks PC sales.
@Americansamurai1 They do, but the bad launch press is probably going to hurt it unfortunately!
@get2sammyb you say Sony outselling, any numbers? theres no breakdown. Cheers
So February was massive in both America and Japan for Playstation and that's without any new exclusive software. Although I'd wager Hogwarts Legacy helped shift a tonne of consoles on its own.
@get2sammyb yeah really disappointing that they would release one of their biggest franchise in a broken state. I wonder if releasing it in early access would have been better that way people know it's not 100%
Updated to add this was a PlayStation console's biggest ever February in the US.
Not being called NPD anymore is a travesty. The new name looks so wrong.
@UltimateOtaku91 I'm still amazed that Hogwarts sold more than Elden Ring in Japan in far less time. I heard it's only second to GT7 there.
Thought they love their souls games there but seems not that much.
Great month for PlayStation with hardly and announced first party games for 2023. And Xbox still coming in last place.
With the console shortages seemingly behind us, I'm very interested to see how long the booming sales last... there was a TON of pent up demand for the console among consumers struggling to buy one.
@rpawlos15133 I think it's going to keep rolling for a while yet, will probably slow in the summer, but then Sony's got Spider-Man and the rumoured revised model to release in September.
It's going to be a colossal year for them.
@get2sammyb I definitely think you are correct... Spiderman 2 alone is a huge, and the Playstation brand continues to be borderline synonymous with videogames at this point!
Playstation is dat Greatstation.
Record after record will be crushed by dat Greatstation.
@ShogunRok Well, NPD is associated with something entirely different. Especially, when one try to Google it. You'd be surprised.
@Kingleo31 VG games companies have been saying they're going to stop promoting games years or months in advance, they want to wait till the game is almost ready, that's why EA waited so long to show jedi survivor barely 6 month before its launch and its also the reason why sony hasn't showed spiderman 2 yet, according to their studies its easier to maintain the hype that way, so sony not showing their games doesn't mean they don't have nothing cookin in the oven right now.
@Sil_Am Harry Potter is a massive massive franchise dude, very few ip's can compete with it in popularity.
@Swirly activision games are not console selling games, and believe me, after all is said and done microsoft wont pull those franchises from PS as they would be loosing massive amounts of cash.
Very close to NOT purchasing a PS5 except Best Buy came through at Christmas with the God of War pack
@LordBakemono I’m sure they do as well. But my point was we know very little what’s coming this year from them outside of Spider-Man 2 and we see numbers like this. Now imagine if we had news confirming more first party games? Would that number of units sold be that much higher? Either way, an extraordinary month for PlayStation.
So are the numbers coming up this late going to be a regular thing now or they just got delayed for some reason this time? Can someone please answer this? Is there anything that I miss?
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