- Fortnite
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cols War
- Fifa 21
- NBA 2K21
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Destiny 2
- MLB The Show 21
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Demon’s Souls
- NBA 2K22
Console Gaming Statistics 2022
Last Updated:
While the console gaming market continues to grow, it seems that current-gen consoles just can’t seem to knock older models and games from the top spots. At the time of writing, the PlayStation 2 is still the best-selling console of all time with 157.68 million units sold, and the best-selling console game is still Wii Sports with 82.65 million units.
In total, the global console gaming market was estimated to be worth $45.2 billion in 2020, showing an impressive year-on-year growth of 6.8%.
Sources: VGChartz, NewZoo
Global console gaming hardware unit sales by brand
Console gaming content market value worldwide from 2018 to 2025
Gamers Have More Than
0 Billion Hours
of Gameplay on the PS5
Gamers have spent more than 4.6 Billion hours of gameplay on the PS5 since it’s release.
PlayStation, 2021
Sony and Nintendo dominate the Top
0 Places
for Console Sales Worldwide
Sony and Nintendo’s consoles dominate the Top 8 places in the console sales charts worldwide with Xbox falling in to place 9.
Statista, 2021
PS5 Sold
Over 0 Million
Units Worldwide
Sony’s PS5 has sold over 13.4 Million units worldwide.
Sony, 2021
PlayStation 2 sold
0 Million Units
Since its Release in 2000
PlayStation 2 sold 157.68 million units before it was discontinued, making it the most popular video game console around the world.
Statista, 2021
The Nintendo Switch has sold over
0 Million Units
Worldwide
The Nintendo Switch has sold over 91 Million consoles worldwide since it’s release. It’s unique trait being the hybrid portable and stationary set ups. Nintendo made a comeback from it’s predecessor, the Wii U.
Statista, 2021
The global console gaming market was estimated to be worth
$ 0 Billion
in 2020
The value of the global console gaming market was estimated to be worth 45.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, which is a YOY growth of 6.8%
NewZoo, 2020
Overview
The three players in the console market, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, continue to bring out impressive consoles and games each and every year, and the healthy competition between them helps to foster some great results. This current-gen has seen Sony’s PS4 take the lead with 46.7% of the market share, followed by the Nintendo Switch at 36.9%, and then Microsoft’s Xbox One at 16.4%.
Sources: VGChartz
2021 Update
All-time best-selling console games based on global unit sales as of January 2021
2021 Update
Installed base of next generation PlayStation and Xbox game consoles worldwide from 2020 to 2024 (in million units)
2021 Update
Console gaming content market value worldwide from 2018 to 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars)
2021 Update
The PlayStation 2 was initially released in 2000 and 20 years since its release, the PS2 has become the best selling video game console of all time. As of June 2021, it had sold almost 158 million units across the world.
2022 Update
The expected revenue for game consoles in 2022 is at a -6.6% decline after being at a 10% growth in 2021.
2022 Update
As of 2021, there were 106 million console gamers in North America, accounting for 42% of the global console gaming market. Europe came second at 99.6 million gamers.
2021 Update
In South Korea most of the respondents used a computer to purchase new games (56%) in comparison to US’s preference of a gaming console whilst using it (48%).
2021 Update
Console gaming content worldwide in 2020 was $42.9 Billion US dollars and is expected to reach $70.6 Billion US dollars in 2025.
2020 Update
The global console gaming market is expected to grow from $40.6 billion in 2019 to circa $57.9 billion in 2020. Covid quarantine has presented an opportunity for dedicated console and computer gamers to spend more time with new games, however, high penetration of smartphones has increased the demand for mobile gaming as a competitor to console games.
ResearchAndMarkets.com, 2020
2020 Update
LGBTQ+ households are 25% more likely to own a game console than the general U.S. population and are 91% more likely to be planning to buy a new one in the next 12 months.
Nielsen, 2020
2020 Update
The Asia-Pacific market is the largest market for Console Games and is expected to continue to be the largest market until at least 2030
ResearchAndMarkets.com, 2020
2020 Update
The console gaming market is expected to stabilize and reach $67.1 billion at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 13.4% through 2023.
ResearchAndMarkets.com, 2020
2020 Update
The global console gaming market is expected to grow from $40.6 billion in 2019 to circa $57.9 billion in 2020. Covid quarantine has presented an opportunity for dedicated console and computer gamers to spend more time with new games, however, high penetration of smartphones has increased the demand for mobile gaming as a competitor to console games.
ResearchAndMarkets.com, 2020
2020 Update
Console gamers have the highest spending per capita vs gamers on other platforms
DFC Intelligence, 2020
Demographics & Behavior
2020 Update
A global survey in September found that Hong Kong had the highest console gaming reach with 32 percent of the population playing games on consoles. Spain followed in second place with a 29 percent console gaming penetration.
2021 Update
Hours console gamers spend on playing video games per week in the U.S. 2020
2021 Update
A UK Study conducted between October 2020 to January 2021 of UK adults aged 16 years and older found that over 25% of respondents had played games on a gaming console. Console gaming is the second-most popular type of video gaming in the UK, ranking only behind mobile gaming in terms of audience reach.
Subscription services
2021 Update
PlayStation Plus subscribers were offered a cumulative total of 789.72 U.S. dollars’ worth of free video games vs Xbox Live subscribers were offered a cumulative total of almost 1,100 U.S. dollars’ worth of free video games in 2020.
2021 Update
First launched in 2002, Xbox Live is an online multiplayer service associated with Microsoft’s Xbox line of consoles. As of December 2020, Microsoft’s online gaming service had approximately 100 million monthly active users, up from just under 40 million at the beginning of 2016.
2021 Update
First launched in 2010, PlayStation Plus is Sony’s subscription service which allows PlayStation users to play online multiplayer. As of September 2021, the service had over 47.2 million subscribers, a vast increase from the eight million in 2014.
2021 Update
As of November 2020, Switzerland ranked first for the most expensive PS Plus and Xbox Live Gold pricing with 58 and 83 British pounds per year respectively. In contrast, Turkey had the cheapest average price for gaming service subscriptions with 17 GBP for PS Plus and 28 GBP for Xbox Live Gold.
2021 Update
Global gaming audiences who use gaming subscription services as of 4th quarter 2020
2021 Update
Share of global gamers who have purchased gaming add-ons as of 4th quarter 2020, by console
PlayStation
When it comes to console gaming, Sony and PlayStation have been dominating the market for some time now. The PlayStation 2 continues to be the best-selling console of all time with over 157 million units having been sold before it was discontinued. While the PlayStation 4 managed to sell consoles quicker than the PS2, it’s still behind in total sales, clocking in at 116.3 million units as of July 2021.
Sources: Business Insider, VGCHartz, Statista 2021
2021 Update
Sony sold a total of one million PlayStation 4 gaming consoles in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2020, falling short of its overall total from the corresponding quarter of 2019. Around 7.2 million PS4 units were sold in 2020, reaching an all-time low figure as the ninth generation console from Sony, the PlayStation 5 launched end of the year.
2021 Update
As of July 2021, cumulative sales of Sony’s PlayStation 4 gaming console had risen to more than 116 million units. Sales trends for the PS4 have been somewhat unusual: the device sold more units in the third and fourth years after its release than in the first two. Even as the console begins to age, strong sales during the holiday season have ensured that Sony continues to sell millions of units of its flagship gaming console each year.
2021 Update
In 2020, retail software revenue for Sony’s PlayStation console series amounted to 5.55 billion U.S. dollars. The majority of consumer spending on PlayStation gaming software took place in the online segment, with digital downloads, gaming subscriptions PlayStation Plus or PlayStation Now, and microtransactions generating nearly 7.55 billion U.S. dollars during the same period.
2021 Update
In 2020, gaming software for Sony’s PlayStation console series totalled 13.1 billion U.S. dollars. Gaming software sales were expected to be higher and are only projected to take off from 2022 as the release of the PS5 console has been marred by the general lack of availability and the general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on some tentpole gaming title releases, which have been delayed.
2021 Update
Sony’s PlayStation series 3, 4, and 5’s gaming hardware revenue amounted to 5 billion U.S. dollars in the year 2020. With the launch of PlayStation 5 in November 2020, the revenue from hardware sales is forecast to increase in the following years.
2022 Update
Sony’s PlayStation game ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ had the highest completion rate of 50.8%, making it the most engaging open world game title.
2022 Update
As of June 2021, the Sony PlayStation 2, which was released in 2000, has sold 157.68 million units making it the best selling game console. The Nintendo DS is close second with 154.9 million units sold.
2021 Update
The number of active users on PSN (PlayStation Network) worldwide saw a slight decrease from 114 Million users in June 2020 to 105 Million users in June 2021.
2021 Update
As of 2021, Marvel’s Spider-Man was the best-selling PS4 game of all time. It shipped 20 Million units since its release in September 2018.
2021 Update
The Top Ten PS5 games played during the PS5’s first year (Based on gameplay hours):
2020 Update
The PlayStation VR has sold 5 million units and 21 million games to date
VGS, 2020
2020 Update
On average, players spend 600 million hours on the PlayStation 4 every week
VGS, 2017
2020 Update
There are 2.2 million PlayStation Now subscribers
gamesindustry.biz, 2020
2020 Update
There are 94 million monthly active PlayStation Network users
Spark Chronicles, 2019
2018 Update
In 2016, PlayStation 4 had an installed base of 50.61 million units while PlayStation 3 only had 36.53 million units. (Futuresource, 2016)
Nintendo
2020 has been a great year for Nintendo with some it’s most popular games releasing for their current-gen console, the Nintendo Switch. Since launching, the Switch has been an incredible success for Nintendo, outselling the previous Wii U in just 10 months, with 2.4 million consoles sold in the first month alone. Their total sales have now reached 60 million units for the Nintendo Switch.
Sources: VGChartz, VentureBeat, VGS
2022 Update
Nintendo’s action-adventure game ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ released in March 2017 has accumulated over 24.13 million unit sales as of March 2021. The game is one of Nintendo’s top selling Nintendo Switch game titles worldwide.
2021 Update
With 82.9 Million units of Wii Sports sold, it was titled the top selling Wii game to date (2021).
2020 Update
The Nintendo Switch outsold the previous generation console, the Nintendo Wii U, in just 10 months
VGS, 2020
2020 Update
There have 210.13 million Nintendo Switch games sold to date
VGChartz, 2019
2020 Update
There are 15 million Nintendo Switch Online subscribers
VGChartz, 2020
2020 Update
There were 2.4 million Nintendo Switch consoles sold in the first month
VentureBeat, 2020
2020 Update
Nintendo sold 50,000 Switch consoles on launch day in China
VentureBeat, 2020
2020 Update
There have been 310.64 million games sold for the Nintendo Switch so far
VGChartz, 2020
2020 Update
Nintendo have sold 60 million Switch consoles
VGChartz, 2020
2018 Update
78% of Nintendo’s home console unit sales in fiscal 2017 belonged to Nintendo Switch. (Nintendo, 2018)
Xbox
A direct competitor to the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox hasn’t seen quite the same levels of success as their opponent. The Xbox One has sold 41 million consoles since launch which, while impressive, still falls behind the PS4’s 102 million. They do have a thriving online community though, with 10 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers and 65 million monthly active users on Xbox Live.
Sources: VGChartz, IGN
2022 Update
In January 2022, Microsoft’s Xbox content and services segment increased by 2% since the previous year. COVID-19 had a gaming boom and so their 2020 revenue soared before declining again.
2020 Update
On average, users spend 4.28 billion hours playing games on Xbox Live each month
pocketgamer, 2019
2020 Update
There are 10 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers
VGChartz, 2020
2020 Update
There are currently 65 million monthly active users on Xbox Live
pocketgamer, 2019
2020 Update
The Xbox One has sold a total of 41 million consoles since launch
IGN, 2020
2018 Update
COD: Infinite Warfare sold 3.96 million units in 2016, taking the second place among the best-selling Xbox One video game titles in 2016. (VGChartz, 2017)
2018 Update
24% of Xbox One users use the video game console to watch streamed movies and TV shows. (Nielsen, Microsoft, 2017)
2018 Update
9% of Xbox One users use the video game console to watch DVDs and Blue-rays while 15% of such users use it for purposes other than online and offline gaming. (Nielsen, Microsoft, 2017)
2018 Update
Xbox One had an estimated installed base of 46 million units in 2018 alone. (Bank of America, 2016)
2018 Update
Xbox One had an estimated installed base of 42 million units in 2017, up from 33 million in 2016. (Bank of America, 2016)