NPD Group: US consumer spending on video game products fell 13% YoY to $12.35B in Q2 2022; non-mobile subscription content was Q2's only segment that saw growth
The video game industry growth has slowed down — US consumer spending on video game products has fallen by $1.78 billion in Q2, according to market research firm NPD. Source: NPD Group .
The VergeTom Warren
Context & Ripple Effects
The post-pandemic correction is now a confirmed trend, not a blip: this 13% Q2 drop follows NPD's earlier reading of an 8% YoY decline in Q1 2022, with March alone down 15%. The comparison base is the lockdown surge, when US gaming hit a then-record $10.86B in a single quarter and 79% of US consumers were playing games.
The one bright spot — non-mobile subscription content being Q2's only growth segment — matters because it shows where wallets are moving even as total spending shrinks: recurring services are holding up while discretionary hardware and premium software purchases contract.
First-order effects
Publishers and retailers dependent on premium game sales and accessory attach face a $1.78B smaller quarterly wallet, right as they head into the back-half release calendar.
Subscription service operators get confirmation their model is counter-cyclical in this downturn — the only segment still growing as everything else falls double digits.
Second-order effects
Platform holders under pressure on hardware and software revenue have a stronger incentive to push subscription tiers and bundles harder, since that is where consumer dollars are demonstrably still flowing.
Hardware and accessory suppliers face softer sell-through at retail, squeezing inventory orders and pricing power downstream.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, the industry's revenue mix structurally shifts toward recurring subscription revenue and away from unit-driven hardware and premium software sales — a rebalancing later data points reinforce, with global PC/console spending down again in 2024 and US hardware hitting COVID-era lows by mid-2026.
The pandemic-era engagement peak looks less like a new baseline than a pulled-forward demand spike, forcing publishers to plan around a smaller, more subscription-weighted market.
The trend: US gaming is normalizing downward from its pandemic peak while revenue consolidates around subscription models, a shift visible across every major tracker from NPD through Circana.
“Higher prices in everyday spending categories... the return of experiential spending... a lighter release slate of new games, and continued... hardware supply constraints were all likely contributors to the decline seen in the second quarter,” https://www.npd.com/...
It's not just PlayStation and Xbox that saw declines in Q2, but the overall video game industry US Market Via NPD • Total Consumer Spending: -13% • Mobile: -12% • Hardware: -1% • Accessories: -11% • Only category that saw growth was subscriptions https://www.npd.com/...
There's a clear reason for that : availability. Games are much more expensive to buy, especially since the recent push to sell them at 70$(aka 80€) and even if the component shortage have started to stop its still hard to get a recent console for a decent price. https://twitter.c…
I don't speak for all 13% but I'm playing a lot less new games because: - The game franchises I love are quiet. - The newer games are getting pretty derivative and often derive from art styles or story ideas that aren't for me. Elden Ring was great though. https://twitter.com/...
- when everything else is sucking your wallet dry, not much is left for MTX/Full price - weak 2022 lineup overall for AAA titles and a $70 tag for them - Time-gated/Live Service titles. These games turn into part-time jobs to keep up. Less time to play = less money spent https://…
2022 has been one of the weakest years in gaming. Pandemic's impact is real. Not gonna argue that there hasn't been some great games this year (because there has) but certainly the weakest lineup of releases in recent memory. At least on the AAA side of things. https://twitter.co…
US gamers are spending a lot less on video games now than they did in 2021. After Sony and Microsoft saw gaming dips in Q2, NPD says consumer spending decreased by 13%. Details here: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...