June 2022 NPD: Overwatch and Final Fantasy VII return to the top 20

Consumer spending in games continues to trend downwards compared with last year, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. While subscription spending is showing signs of growth, it was not enough to offset the 11% drop in hardware, content and accessory spending.

“June 2022 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories fell 11% when compared to a year ago, to $4.3 billion,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. “Growth in subscription spending could not offset declines in other areas of content spending, while hardware and accessory spending also dropped.” The PlayStation 5 generated the highest dollar sales among all the platforms, both in June and in the first half of 2022. The Nintendo Switch led both in terms of unit sales.

According to data supplied by Sensor Tower, the mobile market is also dipping slightly, though less so than May — it was down 10.7% in June, compared with 12.6% in May. Sensor Tower speculates that the slower drop could be due to the launch of Diablo Immortal, which was in the top 10 revenue charts on both stores. Google Play showed the most decline, while the App Store showed small positive YoY growth.

Piscatella added, “First half spending totaled $26.3 billion, a 10% shortfall when compared to the same period in 2021. Subscription content is the only major spending category that exhibited spending growth.”

June 2022 NPD: Top 20 best-selling games of the month in the U.S.

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. Not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.

These charts are sorted by dollar sales — not number of units sold. And this is for full-game sales and does not include in-game spending.

No surprise, Elden Ring and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga continue to dominate the chart. According to Piscatella, “Elden Ring ranks among the top 10 best-selling premium games in the U.S. market all-time (dollar sales).”

New games on the charts

One of the interesting quirks about this month, as opposed to the previous months, is how many new games have made it into the top 20 this month. While April and May’s charts largely consisted of previously-released titles, five new games have made it in June, the highest since March. This is likely because of the number of interesting new releases, which is arguably higher this month than it has been. The top-selling new release is Mario Strikers: Battle League, followed by F1 22, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Sonic Origins, and The Quarry.

Spike of interest in older titles

The other interesting thing about June’s charts is the number of games in the top 20 that were previously of much lower rank. For example, Final Fantasy VII: Remake was previously ranked 159, but has risen to 9th place this month. This is likely because of the announcement of the sequel, among other promotional events in June to celebrate the original game’s 25th anniversary. According to Piscatella, Final Fantasy VII: Remake was last in the top 20 in May 2020. Other games freshly back on the charts including Overwatch (from 59th to 5th place), following new details on the sequel; Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles (56th to 14th place), which received a release on the Switch, and Monster Hunter: Rise (30th to 13th place), following the launch of the Sunbreak expansion.

June 2022 NPD: 20 best-selling games of 2022 so far

June 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling games of the last 12 months

June 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Nintendo-platform games in the U.S.

June 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling PlayStation-platform games in the U.S.

May 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Xbox-platform games in the U.S.