Circana, which you may know better as the NPD Group, has released its gaming industry sales analysis for March 2023. Given that it's the biggest release of the month, it's probably no surprise that Resident Evil 4 has dominated the all-format sales chart for the month, but it hasn't yet managed to knock Hogwarts Legacy off its year-to-date perch.
Just like last month (and every other month), the March 2023 Circana analysis was posted on Twitter by analyst Mat Piscatella. According to Piscatella's data, Resident Evil 4 topped the software sales charts across all formats for last month, with Hogwarts Legacy and MLB The Show 23 bringing up second and third place respectively. Fourth and fifth place were filled by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and The Last of Us Part I.
When it comes to year-to-date sales, Resident Evil 4 couldn't quite topple Hogwarts Legacy from its throne. The wizarding open-world game remains at number one for 2023 as a whole, with Modern Warfare II and Resident Evil 4 in second and third. Fourth place across the whole year so far goes to MLB The Show 23, and fifth place is awarded to EA and Motive's Dead Space remake.
Overall premium game spending (as opposed to DLC or free-to-play offerings, for instance) fell compared to last March. However, you shouldn't read too much into that; since last March saw games like Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West topping the charts, it's hardly a straightforward comparison, as Piscatella says.
Hardware spending, on the other hand, rose 10% compared to March last year, representing the second highest hardware spend for March in US history. Hardware growth was mainly driven by PS5 gains, according to Piscatella, with Sony's console hitting the top spot in terms of unit and dollar sales for both March and 2023 as a whole.
As usual, Piscatella's full thread contains lots of fun nerdy insights about the state of the gaming industry right now. If you're interested in spending numbers and other data, I'd strongly recommend giving it a read. Stay tuned for April's forecast, which will no doubt be dominated by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and which will be available next month.
