HBO's The Last Of Us Series Helps 2022's PS5 Remake Climb The Charts

The NPD Group has released its monthly video game sales report for January 2023 for the US, revealing which games and consoles sold the best during the month. The report also shows how the overall industry performed in January 2023. What's more, it reveals that the success of HBO's The Last of Us series helped 2022's The Last of Us: Part I surge up the sales charts.

Overall, total spending on video games--including games, hardware, and accessories--dropped by 5% to $4.3 billion compared to January 2022. This was the first year-over decline for more than 15 months, dating back to September 2022 (which was down 4% compared to September 2021).

The NPD said lower spending on mobile games, physical content for consoles, and gamepads attributed to the year-over-year downfall in sales for January 2023. Spending on games during January 2023 fell by 5%, while accessories dipped by 14%. Hardware spending, however, was flat year-over-year.

Non-mobile subscription revenue and digital add-on console content spending rose year-over-year, but not enough to offset the declines in other sectors.

For games, Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II was January 2023's best-selling game, while EA's Dead Space--which launched in January--ranked second. Other new releases that charted included Fire Emblem Engage (5th), Forspoken (7th), and One Piece Odyssey (9th).

A big mover during January 2023 was The Last of Us: Part I, which rose from No. 36 in December 22 to No. 11 in January. The NPD Group said the big success of HBO's The Last of Us TV series helps to explain the growth in sales for Naughty Dog's game.

What's more, Monster Hunter: Rise launched on PlayStation and Xbox in January 2023, and it rose from No. 68 in December 2022 to No. 13 in January. The game was previously a Switch exclusive.

For mobile, Candy Crush Saga was the biggest earner for revenue during January 2023, followed by Roblox, Royal Match, Coin Master, and Township.

Shifting to hardware, the PS5 was the best-selling console of January 2023 for both unit and dollar sales, while Switch was No. 2 for both metrics. Total spending on hardware in January 2023 reached $393 million, which was flat year-over-year. The PS5 and Switch both posted year-over-year growth, but not enough to make up for "declines across other platforms." NPD did not mention Xbox by name, but presumably the Xbox platform saw sales drop year over year.

For accessories, the PS5 DualSense midnight black controller was January 2023's top-selling accessory. Total spending on accessories in the month fell 14% to $165 million, with a drop in gamepad spending making up the bulk of the year-over-year losses, NPD said.

You can see the top-selling video games for January 2023 below.