The Sony next-gen playstation 5 console is reportedly the biggest console in U.S history. First seen on GameDaily.biz, a report from the NPD shown by an industry advisor indicates that the PS5 launch wasn’t just big – it was the biggest. Mat Piscatella tweeted out slides and information from the NPD showing the year-on-year growth of the spending for November.
Looking at the graph, it’s obvious that November 2019 was no match to 2020. November 2019’s spending was $5.1 billion, while November 2020 is roughly $7.0 billion. Not only were people buying a lot more hardware in 2020 ($0.9 billion compared to $1.5 billion)
The report shows that the PS5 achieved the highest dollar sales in a launch month. The crown was previously held by the PlayStation 4 (launch), back in November of 2013.
But you know what else performed well in November? The Nintendo Switch. That console has continued to dominate year to year since it’s launch in 2017, and it still stands tall when compared to next-gen gaming. In November, it beat the number of units sold in the US (although the PlayStation 5 beat it in dollar sales) – but this is at least somewhat due to the shortage of PS5s across the world. That means the Switch has been the best-selling console in units for the last 24 months in a row. An impressive feat for three-year-old handheld console.
Speaking to GameDaily.biz, Priscatella said that although the PlayStation 5 is performing well, it’s not an indicator for the entire lifecycle of the product yet. He said: “I am certainly optimistic for the long-term prospects for both new gen consoles, but I don’t take anything more away from the launch month sales than that’s the number of units that were produced and distributed.”
He also adds that, it’s basically a case of everything selling well this year. “Just about everything is selling well. I don’t know if we’ll see 35% growth in a November month again anytime soon, so I’m just going to enjoy the ride for a while.”
This year we’ve seen a growth in the gaming world, more people engaging in gaming than ever before which also caused by the ongoing pandemic.