NPD: U.S. games spending up 1% in Q3 as live-services offset consoles

The U.S. gaming industry generated $9.18 billion in the third quarter of 2019, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group and its most recent report. That’s up 1% year-over-year. The revenue is coming from a number of familiar high-performing games as well as additional digital sources. So even as the industry deals with constant disruption, it is still maintaining much of the PlayStation 4’s and Xbox One’s momentum.

Those familiar games and franchises include Borderlands 3, Candy Crush Saga, Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, Madden NFL 20, Minecraft, NBA 2K20, and Pokémon Go. Those new releases and ongoing live-service games contributed significant revenue to the quarter. And that led to double-digit percentage gains in spending on digital console software and mobile. Subscriptions like Xbox Live Gold, PlayStation Plus, and Xbox Game Pass also saw similar growth.