The video game industry continued its strong performance last month, which is being driven primarily by consumers looking to play games as the pandemic continues to spread across the U.S.
Consumers spent $3.6 billion on video game hardware, software, and accessories last month, a 32% increase compared to July 2019, researcher NPD revealed on Friday. Through the first seven months of the year, Americans have spent $26 billion on video game hardware and content, representing a 21% jump compared to 2019.
The strong month was driven primarily by booming sales in the “video game content” category, which includes video games, downloadable content, and subscriptions. Last month, consumers spent $3.3 billion on that content, a year-over-year leap of 34%, according to NPD. The researcher didn’t share unit sales data but said that last month’s blockbuster Buy Now was the top-selling title in July and the bestselling launch ever for developer Sucker Punch. Buy Now and Buy Now followed in second and third place, respectively, and Buy Now and Buy Now rounded out the top five.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris took the 10th spot in game sales last month, making it the highest-ranked Sword Art game ever released, NPD said.
Accessories, including controllers, driving wheels, and headsets, set a new monthly record last month with $170 million in sales. Buy Now was the top-selling accessory in July and is the bestselling accessory of 2020. Gamepad, headset, and steering wheel sales are also setting new sales records this year, NPD said.
Hardware sales were the one negative mark on the industry’s July, with sales falling 2% year-over-year to $166 million. Nintendo’s Switch was the top-selling console last month, NPD said.
The slight decline in hardware sales could be attributable to pent-up demand for the next-generation console cycle. Both Microsoft and Sony plan to launch their new consoles — Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, respectively — this holiday season. It’s common for current-generation console sales to drop ahead of a new cycle as consumers hold off on buying existing hardware and save up for what’s next. Even with the July drop, however, NPD said total hardware spending for the first seven months of the year is up 22% to $1.8 billion.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.