Tears of the Kingdom tops the May best-seller list | Circana May 2023
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In what I’m sure is the most shocking news of this month, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game in May, according to industry-tracking firm Circana (formerly known as the NPD Group). It’s also the only new game released in May to make the list, though again that’s probably not a huge surprise to anyone. Video game sales in general — and console game sales in particular — also rose in May compared with the same period last year.
“Spending on video game content grew 9% in May when compared to a year ago, reaching $3.6 billion,” said Mat Piscatella, Circana’s executive producer for games reports. “Console full game and add-on content spending increased 58% when compared to May 2022, offsetting declines across Mobile and PC. New physical video game software spending reached its highest May total since May 2014.”
Last month I noted that a slight slump in sales of April’s games could be due to players saving up for Tears of the Kingdom, as it was a highly-anticipated major release. In retrospect, May sales are not drastically higher than April — it’s likely that the decline in April was therefore due to the then-ongoing effects Elden Ring and LEGO Star Wars were having on sales last year.
“PlayStation 5 continues to lead the 2023 hardware market across both units and dollars,” added Piscatella. “Year-to-date content spending has declined 2% when compared to the same period in 2022.” He also added that, while the black PlayStation DualSense controller is the most popular accessory of the year so far, Tears of the Kingdom Series 1 Amiibo Character Pack led accessory unit sales in May.
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