- A Q3 wrap-up of videogame sales showed consumer spending in the sector rose 24% Y/Y, hitting $9.1B overall.
- That's the July-September period before the key holiday release season, which kicked off with a bang last month via a record October spurred by new Call of Duty (ATVI -6.1%) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (TTWO -2.5%) releases.
- Videogame content sales were up 25% to $7.9B, NPD Group says, with broad gains led by mobile games and digital content for consoles/portables.
- Hardware sales were up 11% for the quarter, to $737M, while accessory sales rose 44% with all-time quarterly records in headsets as well as in game cards.
- The software releases with the biggest quarterly impact on dollar sales, according to NPD Group? Alphabetically: Candy Crush Saga (NASDAQ:ATVI), Fortnite (Epic, 40% owned by OTCPK:TCEHY), Madden NFL 19 (EA -2.9%), Marvel's Spider-Man (SNE +1.9%) and NBA 2K19 (NASDAQ:TTWO).
- Weighing on industry shares today is a dim forecast from GameStop, which projects holiday sales skewing toward hardware from software.
- Industry tickers: MSFT +0.2%, OTCPK:NTDOY -1.6%, HEAR -5.2%, OTCPK:UBSFY +1.7%, OTC:NCBDY, OTCPK:CCOEY -5.1%, GME -6.4%.
- ETFs: GAMR -0.7%, ESPO -0.6%
- Now read: Don't Underestimate Activision Blizzard
Original article