February 2023 Circana: PS5 Set New Unit Record for PlayStation, Towered Over Rivals | Push Square

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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.

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