Video Game Sales market 2020 Quarantine M

Video Game Market Share by Company

As early as March, the Coronavirus-induced quarantine led to an all-time high in global digital video game sales, but in April, the total of $10 billion will be slightly outbid.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons once again benefits in particular.

The best quarter for digital games since digital games

An enormous $10.5 billion was spent by consumers worldwide on digital games and in-game content in April 2020, as Superdata reports. This alone is already a record, but the entire first quarter of 2020 is also the most profitable so far, having already reached unusually high levels in March and February. The analysts once again see the cause of the quarantine measures that have persisted throughout the month in many Western countries. Unsurprisingly, this represents a considerable increase of 17 percent compared to the same period of the previous year: in April 2019, sales amounted to around 8.9 billion US dollars, which were already considered to be a strong figure at that time.

Meanwhile, when looking at the individual PC, console and mobile categories, there is again strong growth in all areas, with the sales of console valves in particular standing out: A growth of 42 percent dwarfs the almost double-digit gains in the other two categories. This unusual constellation - often the mobile games alone carry the growth - can also be explained by the fact that many people play at home and at least temporarily switch from the smartphone to the console or the PC.

Animal Crossing on the Switch is Call of Duty on the Playstation

The reason for this change was often Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Already in March, the game recorded over 5 million digital sales; in April, at least 3 million more were added. This makes the title the best-selling game for the Nintendo Switch around two months after its release, as well as the highest-selling title of the platform to date. On the Playstation, however, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in the Campaign Remastered Edition was a completely different genre very successful. The game sold around 3.4 million copies over the course of April, followed by around 620,000 sales at the March 31 release.

However, high player numbers also record established multiplayer titles such as 

League of Legends or GTA Online. Riot Games' MOBA posted an all-time high of monthly players in April and as high revenues as last seen over two years ago in February 2017. Rockstar Games, in turn, benefited last month from record sales with the in-game purchases. This trend is likely to continue this month, after all, the game was last available for free.