EA Sports College Football 25 overtakes Helldivers 2 as best-selling US game of 2024

EA Sports College Football 25 has overtaken Helldivers 2 as the best-selling game of 2024 year-to-date in the US.

The game enjoyed a blockbuster release that drove double-digit growth in July US video game spending, according to research firm Circana, which published its monthly industry sales report on Wednesday.

Mat Piscatella, executive director, video games at Circana, said the game “significantly exceeded” his expectations, “and they were high”, adding that it boosted hardware, software and accessories sales last month, despite a significant decline in Nintendo Switch adoption.

“Launch month dollar sales of EA Sports College Football 25 more than tripled the total lifetime dollar sales of the previous best-selling college football game, NCAA Football 07,” he said.

“The EA Sports MVP Bundle, which includes the EA Sports College Football 25 Deluxe Edition and Madden NFL 25 Deluxe Edition, ranked 2nd among July’s best-selling titles, and placed 5th for the 2024 year-to-date period.”

The only other new release to make July’s top 20 chart was Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition – a feat achieved based on physical sales alone given that Nintendo doesn’t share digital sales data.

Spending on consoles last month grew 12% compared to July 2023, with PS5 up 25% and Xbox Series X/S up 48%, while spending on Switch declined 44%.

PS5 continued to lead the hardware market in both unit and dollar sales, with Xbox Series X/S ranking second across both measures.

“July 2024 is the first month with year-on-year growth in video game hardware spending since the 2% increase seen during December 2023,” Piscatella said.

Total US consumer spending on game hardware, content and accessories in July grew 10% year-over-year to $4.8 billion. Year to date consumer spending is now 2% higher than a year ago at $32.1 billion.