In April 2024, Stellar Blade, a third-person action game developed by Shift Up, became the top-selling video game in the U.S. It was also the only new release to be included amongst the top 20 best-selling premium games for the month, surpassing other debut games such as Sand Land and Another Crab’s Treasure. Mat Piscatella, Circana’s Executive Director of Video Games, further discussed this achievement on X/Twitter, with him pointing out that while Stellar Blade had an impressive ranking, it actually delivered the lowest sales for a leading title since April 2012, when Radical Entertainment’s Prototype 2 held the top spot.
Piscatella provided additional insights relating to the performance of console sales. In his post, he indicated that PlayStation 5 (PS5) sales are trending above PlayStation 4 (PS4) sales; however, 2023 may have marked the peak year for PS5 sales in the US. The PS5’s competitor, Xbox Series X/S, is lagging behind Xbox One by 13% and is still marginally trailing Xbox 360 in US sales. This information is particularly intriguing when considering recent statistics from Sony that reveal half of PlayStation users still haven’t upgraded to the PS5 console.
Despite experiencing mixed fortunes in the hardware sales market, both Sony and Microsoft are preparing for the launch of new hardware. Rumors suggest that Sony’s PS5 Pro had its specifications leaked in March with developers being alerted to ready their games for the new device. Microsoft has already announced it is developing a next-generation gaming console that promises to present the “largest technical leap” for a game console generation. However, prior to that, a leak from 2024 detailed Microsoft’s plan to introduce mid-cycle refreshes of the Xbox Series X/S.
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