June 2021 NPD: Xbox and Switch outsell the competition

Hardware sales had a huge month in the United States in June. Consumers snapped up $401 million in new consoles, which is up 112% compared to the same period in 2020, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. A lot of that comes from increased interest in the new generation of consoles. And June also got some help from a huge influx of Xbox Series X/S devices  just after the E3 industry trade show.

“June video game hardware dollar sales jumped 112% when compared to June 2020, to $401 million,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “This is the highest total achieved in a June month since 2008’s $617 million.”

For the year so far, 2021 is easily outpacing the 2020, which had to rely on aging Xbox One and PlayStation 4 hardware platforms.

“Year-to-date hardware consumer spending has increased 45% compared to 2020’s first half, to $2.3 billion,” said Piscatella.

The Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch came out on top … depending on how you count.

“Xbox Series X/S was the best-selling hardware platform in dollar sales for the month of June, while Nintendo Switch led in unit sales,” said Piscatella.

This was the best June ever for the Xbox brand, in terms of console sales.

“June dollar sales of Xbox consoles set a new record for the Xbox platform, besting the previous high set in June 2011,” said Piscatella.

For 2021 as a whole, the Switch is still dominant.

“Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware platform during 2021’s first half in both dollar and unit sales,” said Piscatella.

And the supply-constrained PlayStation 5 continues to set records of its own.

“PlayStation 5 remains the fastest unit-selling console hardware platform in U.S. history for lifetime sales through eight months on the market excluding portables,” said Piscatella.