Circana Declares Sunless Ops 6 as the Anticipated Triumph of 2024, Yet Overall Gaming Activity in the US Declines by 9% Year-Over-Year
Player engagement with video games and hardware has also decreased – by 5% and 29%, respectively
Circana has released its December 2024 US overview, indicating that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 dominated the year as the highest-selling premium game for both the month and, in fact, all of 2024.
This achievement makes Activision’s Call of Duty franchise the top-selling series for a remarkable 16th consecutive year.
Roblox also “enjoyed a strong December,” with user engagement increasing by 24% compared to November and surging significantly on Christmas, accumulating nearly $12 million in US mobile user spending.
Although Christmas is “the most significant day of the year for Roblox annually,” Sensor Tower suggests that this year’s holiday was “particularly substantial,” resulting in 35% more US user engagement this year compared to last.
Additionally, according to Circana’s December report, projected US consumer expenditures on video game hardware, content, and accessories dropped 8.9% to $7.5 billion compared to the previous year, with overall US consumer engagement across the video game market also declining by 1.1% to $58.7 billion from $59.2 billion in 2023.
- Overall video game sales* in December 2023: $8,282m
- Overall video game sales* in December 2024: $7,543m (-9%)
- Overall video game sales** for 2023: $59,294m
- Overall video game sales** for 2024: $58,659m (-1%)
*projected for the entire market
**December 30, 2023 – January 4, 2025
Player involvement with video game content and hardware is also down – 5% and 29%, respectively – while video game accessory engagement remains stable year-over-year.
The analysis reveals a 21% decline in content spending on consoles, which, when combined with a 1% decrease in mobile, offsets a 13% increase in other categories such as PC, cloud, and non-console VR.
The substantial drop in hardware engagement year-on-year is most apparent for Xbox and Nintendo, with both the Xbox Series and Switch experiencing a 38% decline, and Sony’s PS5 declining by 18%.
49% of PS5 and 43% of Xbox Series hardware sold in December did not include a physical disc drive, with the digital model asserting itself as the US’ third-best-selling console over the period