Analytical company Circana has published a new report on the American gaming market for July, and the figures turned out to be among the weakest in the entire history of observations. Players in the US significantly reduced their spending on both hardware and games themselves. The decline affected all key segments at once.

Over the month, each console platform sold fewer devices than a year earlier. Total spending on gaming hardware fell by 29%. At the same time, the decline turned out to be deeper than it might seem at first glance. According to Circana, July spending on consoles dropped almost to the level of July 2020, when the pandemic‑related shortage of components made the devices virtually unaffordable. The difference is that there is now enough hardware in warehouses, but high prices have been just as effective as a complete lack of products on the shelves. The distribution across platforms looks unexpected: 32 % of spending on new physical copies since the beginning of the year went to PlayStation, and 63 % to Nintendo. Another anti-record occurred in physical editions. Sales of new games on discs and cartridges have reached a minimum in the history of Circana's calculations since 1995. These figures are especially interesting against the background of Sony's decision to curtail production of PlayStation discs starting in January 2028.

The best-selling game of July was Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, or rather the port released on PS4 and PS5 in the middle of the month. The original Black Ops, which was released simultaneously and is included in a set of 2 games, took 5th place. The total sales of both ports are estimated at approximately 11 million copies. Halo: Campaign Evolved ranked 6th overall and fell noticeably short of the results achieved by the Call of Duty remasters. Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced, Splatoon Raiders, and EA Sports College Football 27 also made it into the top 10. Total spending on games, hardware, and accessories in July decreased by 10% compared to last year. The decline was driven by three areas at once – PCs, consoles, and mobile platforms. As in June, subscriptions remained the only growing category, increasing by 6%. The combination of weak software sales and declining interest in hardware indicates that console owners are cutting back and prefer to return to already familiar major titles instead of buying new ones.