NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella has published his annual industry predictions for 2019 and, unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare tops the list of best-selling titles in the United States.
This year has seen sales of hardware and software slow down compared to previous years, with August 2019 seeing the lowest software spending for the month in over 20 years. However, the U.S. market is still expected to see a growth of six percent, thanks to mobile, digital spending, and Nintendo Switch’s strong performance.
Interestingly, Piscatella believes that alongside full game sales, downloadable content, microtransactions, and subscription services will drive growth.
“Sales of video game content, which includes full game sales, downloadable content, and microtransactions, as well as subscriptions across mobile, console, portable and PC, is forecast to grow by nine percent when compared to a year ago, to $37.8 billion,” he wrote. “Mobile and console digital growth is expected to offset declines across other content segments such as physical and PC digital.”
Console and portable hardware sales are expected to decline by 12 percent year-on-year, thanks in part to the announcement of next-gen consoles. Accessory sales are also expected to decline by eight percent.
The ten games predicted to be this year’s best-sellers in the U.S. are as follows:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- NBA 2K20
- Madden NFL 20
- Borderlands 3
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
- Pokemon Sword*
*Doesn’t include digital sales
Overall, Nintendo Switch is expected to remain the best-selling hardware in the U.S. through the rest of the year.
Any surprises for our readers in this list?
[Source: NPD]
