Toronto, ON, February 12, 2021 – According to The NPD Group, overall spending on new physical hardware, software and accessories and digital console and PC content increased 29% over 2019 achieving sales levels not seen in Canada in over ten years.  Q4 (October-December) also saw a sales gain of 29% over the same period a year ago.

Significant Q4 and annual 2020 gains were seen across hardware and accessories categories as well as digital console software. Hardware and accessories also experienced double-digit percentage gains for the quarter and year, increasing 63% and 21% respectively in Q4, and 54% and 31% respectively for the year.  

“The growth in the video game industry that we saw earlier in the pandemic continued throughout Q4,” said Joan Ramsay, industry analyst for Canada Entertainment at The NPD Group. “Growth across almost all gaming segments drove the market to record spending in both the fourth quarter and the year. The launch of new hardware consoles from Sony and Microsoft in November, combined with continued strong sales from the Nintendo Switch, resulted in strong sales not only of the hardware but in purchases of ancillary accessories and content.”

Among the best-selling titles in Q4 were Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Cyber Punk 2077, NHL 21, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Fifa ‘21, and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe.

“Looking ahead, we expect to see continued strong sales in Q1 of 2021 as more of the new hardware units enter the market and stay at home orders continue in much of the country,” said Ramsay.

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