U.S. video game spending grew 3% y/y in October, says Circana

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that Electronic Arts’ (EA) “Battlefield 6,” mobile content, and Nintendo Switch 2 (NTDOY) were among the drivers of total projected U.S. spending on video game hardware, content and accessories reaching $4.9B in October 2025, growing 3% vs Oct 2024. Video game hardware spending in October grew 36% when compared a year ago, to $351M. Switch 2 was again able to offset declines across Switch, Xbox Series (MSFT), and PlayStation 5 (SONY). Nintendo Switch 2 sold 328,000 units in October. It is 68% ahead of the sales pace set by the original Nintendo Switch and is 3% ahead of PlayStation 4’s previous record velocity. October spending on ASUS (ASUUY) PC Portable hardware devices increased by 4.8x compared to a year ago and is now 30% higher year-to-date. Meanwhile, October video game content spending grew by 1% when compared to a year ago, to $4.4B. Mobile spending growth of 10% and a 9% increase in subscription spending offset declines in other segments. “Battlefield 6” debuted as the best-selling game of 2025 year-to-date. It is currently the best-selling game of 2025 on both the Xbox and the PC aggregated storefront charts, while ranking 2nd year-to-date on PlayStation behind only Take-Two’s (TTWO) “NBA 2K26.” Nintendo’s “Pokemon Legends: Z-A” ranked 2nd overall during October and was the month’s best-selling game on Nintendo platforms. It launched as 2025’s best-selling physical game year-to-date. Other top-selling games in the U.S. in October were Sony’s “Ghost of Yotei,” EA’s “EA Sports FC 26” and “Madden NFL 26,” Microsoft’s “The Outer Worlds 2,” and Bandai Namco’s (NCBDY) “Little Nightmares III.”