Switch Best-Selling Console in the US in May, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Debuts in 1st - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 27 June 2023 / 5,479 Views
The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console in the US in May 2023 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the four week period of April 30 to May 27.
The amount of revenue spent on Switch hardware reached a new record in May for the platform, while it was the second best May in terms of units sold, only behind May 2020. The Switch saw double digit growth in terms of revenue.
The PlayStation 5 was the second best-selling console in terms of units sold and dollar sales. The PS5 saw triple digit growth year-on-year in terms of revenue.
The Xbox Series X|S was the third best-selling console in terms of units sold and dollar sales.
2023 year-to-date the PlayStation 5 is the best-selling console in terms of both units sold and dollar sales, while the Nintendo Switch is in second in both rankings, and the Xbox Series X|S comes in third.
Overall spending on video games in May was up 12 percent year-on-year from $3.67 billion to $4.12 billion. Spending on video game content increased nine percent from $3.31 billion to $3.62 billion, while video game hardware sales jumped 56 percent from $216 million to $338 million.
Overall spending on video games in 2023 year-to-date is up less than one percent from $21.77 billion to $21.83 billion. Spending on video game content decreased two percent from $19.10 billion to $18.73 billion, while video game hardware sales is up 23 percent from $1.76 billion to $2.16 billion.
"May 2023 U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories totaled $4.1 billion, a 12% increase when compared to a year ago," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella. "Spending gains were seen across Content, Hardware, and Accessories."
Piscatella added, "Spending on video game content grew 9% in May when compared to a year ago, reaching $3.6 billion. Console full game and add-on content spending increased 58% when compared to May 2022, offsetting declines across Mobile and PC."
Piscatella on hardware stated the "Switch was the best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales during May 2023. Consumer spending on Switch hardware reached an all-time May high for the platform, while unit sales were 2nd highest ever for the platform in a May month, trailing only May 2020.
"PlayStation 5 continues to lead the 2023 hardware market across both units and dollars."
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game in May 2023 and is already the second best-selling game of 2023, only behind Hogwarts Legacy. This is despite Nintendo not sharing digital sales of its games.
Hogwarts Legacy is up four spots to second place, while Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in its second month fell two spots to third place. Dead Island 2 in its second month on the market fell from second to fourth place.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II remained in fifth place, while MLB: The Show 23 dropped three spots to sixth place.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild saw a bump in sales as it returned to the top 20 in 13th place.
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for April 2023:
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in 2023 year-to-date:
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Switch surpass already ps2 as second best ever console in Americas.In first place remain DS as best ever in Americas
VGChartz has the PS2 at 53mil in North America alone.
https://www.vgchartz.com/charts/platform_totals/Hardware.php/
So what is your statement based on? You even felt the need to post this in both articles.
Bruh, Zelda is most likely a bigger mastodon than anyone would've predicted before launch, fact is it's right on the tail of Hogwarts despite the lack of digital sales numbers.
Can we expect more than 400K units sold for the Switch in the US in May?
Yeah it should be above 400K
fair to say TOTK already sold 15m worldwide?
i go for 20mil already!
About 20M until end of June I think
Interesting to see Forspoken still in top 20.
Next month will be out of it.
Essay Pro