It's been nearly six years since the Nintendo Switch was released, but the console continues to break records left and right. According to NPD Group, the Switch was the best-selling console in the US for 2022 based on units sold.
However, its direct competitor, the PlayStation 5, topped the charts in terms of revenue generated, mostly thanks to its much steeper price point compared to the Switch.
Hardware spending in the US grew by 16% in December 2022, reaching $1.5 billion in market value ahead of the holiday season. US consumers spent upwards of $6.6 billion on hardware purchases in 2022 as a whole, which is an 8% growth when compared to the year prior. This is despite the video game market experiencing a contraction instead of growth, with a 5% decline in revenue in 2022 compared to the previous year.
Spending on console games made up a big fraction of those $56.6 billion in revenue generated, with $47.5 billion spent in 2022, a 7% difference from 2021 numbers. Mobile games were hit especially hard in 2022, with shooter games, in particular, seeing massive dropoffs in 2022, falling by 26% year-over-year.