PS4 led the pack again for hardware sales in June 2017 thanks to Sony’s new release of a gold PS4 slim, though the month marked a strong growth for hardware in general. “It was the best performing June for PlayStation 4 unit sales to date,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. The Nintendo Switch has helped hardware sales in general to surge, but there has been a strong decline in portable hardware sales. ?Year to date, hardware spending has grown 19 percent versus 2016 to $1.4 billion,? said Piscatella. ?The Nintendo Switch has been the catalyst for year-to-date growth. But portable hardware spending continues to decline. Year-to-date, spending on portable hardware has fallen 40 percent.?
Apart from accessory sales which fell by 1% to $159 million, total industry sales were up by 7% year-on-year in June 2017 to $765 million. Hardware saw a particularly big boost — up 27% over June 2016 to $231 million — which is largely credited to the Nintendo Switch and Sony’s gold slim PS4. Console and PC software were each up by 1% and 2% to 343 million and 32 million respectively. Looking towards software sales, fighting games come out on top for the second month in a row, with Injustice 2 only dropping to second after Tekken 7 released in June. Injustice 2 took the top spot in May. Piscatella notes “June marks the second consecutive month that a newly-released fighting game has topped the sales chart.? Crash Bandicoot also landed at an impressi...