U.S. video game spending fell 9 percent year over year to $4.3 billion in August 2026, according to Circana data shared by Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor Mat Piscatella. The decline covered spending on content, hardware and accessories, with mobile gaming accounting for much of the drop.
Mobile spending fell 18 percent compared with August 2025, while console content spending declined 7 percent. PC content was one of the stronger areas, increasing 13 percent, while spending on subscriptions rose 3 percent.
Hardware spending dropped 3 percent year over year to $302 million. Hardware spending for 2026 through August reached $2.5 billion, down 11 percent from the same period last year. Unit sales fell 15 percent to 559,000, marking the lowest August total since 2013.
PlayStation 5 hardware dollar sales increased 17 percent despite an 11 percent decline in unit sales. Xbox Series hardware spending fell 13 percent, with unit sales down 31 percent, while Nintendo hardware spending declined 13 percent and unit sales dropped 15 percent.
Nintendo Switch 2 still led the hardware market in both unit and dollar sales for August and year to date, followed by PS5. The average price paid for new video game hardware reached a record $541 in August, up from the previous August record of $476 set in 2025.
Content spending declined 10 percent during the month to $3.8 billion. Year to date, content spending reached $32.2 billion, down 2 percent from 2025.
NBA 2K27 was August’s best-selling game based on full-game dollar sales and climbed to third among the best-selling games of 2026 so far, despite entering early access on August 26. Madden NFL 27 ranked second for the month, followed by Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Six new releases placed among August’s top 10.
Elden Ring also saw a significant jump following the release of its Nintendo Switch 2 version, moving from 41st in July to seventh in August. Spending on new physical software was up 5 percent year to date at $738 million, helped by a 631 percent increase in spending on Game-Key Card releases.
Mobile spending remained concentrated around established games. MONOPOLY GO!, Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga led consumer spending for August, while Pokémon GO fell four positions to seventh after its anniversary-related boost faded.
Accessories were one of the few market segments to grow, with spending increasing 3 percent year over year to $176 million. Remote Play Device spending rose 39 percent, while the PlayStation Portal Midnight Black ranked as the third best-selling accessory behind the Midnight Black DualSense and DualSense Edge.
