U.S. video game spending fell 4% y/y in November, says Circana

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said the release of Activision’s (MSFT) “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7” marked the 18th consecutive year that a “CoD” franchise release has been the best-selling game of its release month, while PS5 (SONY) led hardware in both unit and dollar sales for the month of November. Total projected spending across video game hardware, content and accessories fell 4% when compared to a year ago, to $5.9B, in November in the U.S. Hardware, accessory and console content declines drove the change. The average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware in the US during November 2019 was $235. In November 2025 it was $439. 3.9M units of video game hardware sold in the US in November 2019. In November 2025 it was 1.6M, Piscatella noted. PlayStation 5 was November’s best-selling hardware in both units and dollars, the first time this has occurred since the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 (NTDOY). Nintendo Switch 2 ranked 2nd for November across both units and dollars. Other top-selling games for the month were Electronic Arts’ (EA) “Battlefield 6,” Take-Two’s (TTWO) “NBA 2K26,” EA’s “Madden NFL 26” and “EA Sports FC 26,” Nintendo’s “Pokemon Legends: Z-A,” and Sony’s “Ghost of Yotei.”