All articles tagged with #circana
Toys ‘R’ Us says it will open 120 standalone stores this holiday season, bringing total standalone locations to 160 and expanding alongside Macy’s stores; market data shows adults and teens fueling toy sales through nostalgia-driven purchases and a shift toward analog, hobby-based play, underscoring a broader revival under WHP Global.
Toys 'R' Us is rolling out about 120 new stores in its biggest expansion in years, driven by a surge in adult toy shoppers and collectibles purchases (Circana data show adults now account for roughly half of toy sales). The push, led by WHP Global and Go! Retail Group, aims to bring total U.S. stores to around 160 in the coming weeks, with 3,500–7,000-square-foot formats in malls and shopping centers featuring big brands like LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Pokémon, and some locations including cafes or candy shops. The revival follows the company’s 2017 bankruptcy and a broader rebound in the toy industry where “kidults” have become a meaningful customer segment.
Circana's latest data reveals the top 20 best-selling GameCube games in the U.S., led by Nintendo titles with Super Smash Bros. Melee at No. 1, followed by Super Mario Sunshine and Mario Kart: Double Dash. The list is ranked by unit sales, with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle as the first third-party entry at No. 8 and Sonic Heroes at No. 15; Resident Evil 4 misses the Top 20 at No. 21, noted as the GameCube marks its 25th anniversary.
Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker for the week ending Sept 5, 2026 found no significant change in weekly active users among US top titles despite the PS Blackout organized by DoesItPlay and others urging PlayStation users to abstain from Sony platforms. The data measures weekly active users (not concurrent players) across the top 10/20 titles, and while the protest sparked debate over physical discs and digital distribution, Circana reports engagement and spending remained broadly flat.
Circana data shows Nintendo accounts for 63% of new US physical game sales this year, with PlayStation at about 32% and Xbox just over 4%; July 2026 hit a record low for new physical software at $85 million due to fewer releases. Nintendo still led global physical software at 38.5% (61.5% digital), with digital revenue at 132.7 billion yen and a 90% YoY increase. The breakdown between Switch 2 and Switch isn’t provided.
Xbox and EA have left Circana's digital data sharing panel, removing the main sources for U.S. digital sales data and leaving Circana with fewer publishers—potentially increasing reliance on estimates and reducing transparency about how first-party and other storefronts perform.
US July physical software sales fell to $85 million—the lowest monthly total since Circana began tracking in 1995—while hardware spending dropped 29% YoY to $282 million; the average console price rose to $542 amid Switch 2 expectations and component shortages. Unit sales declined across PS5 (6%), Xbox Series (18%), and Switch 2 (51%), though Switch 2 led in units and PS5 led revenue. Content spending fell 10% to $4.5 billion despite six new Top 10 releases, with Pokémon Go up 230% YoY during its 10th anniversary; Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 topped July sales, followed by EA Sports College Football 27, and Circana published a projected top-10 for July 5–Aug 8, 2026.
New Circana data shows US spending on gaming hardware and physical software fell sharply in July, with hardware outlays down 29% year over year and overall hardware spending near July 2020’s pandemic-driven shortages. Physical game sales hit a near-record low for July, while subscriptions rose 6%. Share of new physical game spend skewed toward PlayStation and Nintendo, and the top-seller was Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (port) with other ports also performing well; the combined spend on games, hardware and accessories declined about 10% year over year.
A Circana report shows U.S. buyers are largely skipping Xbox physical discs this year, with Xbox at just over 4% of new physical game sales while Nintendo leads with 63% and PlayStation at 32%; analysts point to Xbox Game Pass digital access, cross‑platform releases, and production differences, and note July 2026 saw an all‑time low for new physical software amid broader declines in content spending.
Beef prices in the US remain elevated near historic highs, helping push overall food-inflation and prompting shoppers to buy less beef or switch to cheaper proteins like chicken. A Circana survey shows beef volumes down about 0.3% in the 13 weeks through mid-July, even as national ground-beef prices hovered around $7 per pound and individual stores reported prices near $8 in some places. While imports from Mexico and Argentina and plant closures by Tyson hint at some relief, industry observers say the downturn in demand is gradual and relief will not be immediate, with many households still feeling stretched.
Circana’s US market data show physical game sales have collapsed from a 2009 peak of 297 million units to just 37 million in the last year, helping explain Sony’s plan to stop selling physical discs in 2028. The analysis notes only a handful of PS games sold in physical recently (top title around 275,000 units so far this year) and a growing share of hardware sold as digital-only (about 27% of PS5 and 52% of Xbox Series sales), signaling a market-wide shift toward digital downloads that aligns with Sony’s disc-free strategy.
June 2026 saw Xbox console unit sales rise 86% year-over-year, aided by a higher average price (up about 13%) and last year’s Switch 2 launch; Xbox ranked third in both dollar and unit sales for the month, while Switch 2 led hardware purchases. Hardware spending fell 62% year-over-year to $383 million, with Switch 2 hardware down 79% but still the month’s top seller; total US video game spending reached $4.5 billion for June.
Circana’s June 2026 US sales chart shows UFC 6 at #1, Meccha Chameleon #2, 007 First Light #3, Star Fox (2026) at #4, and LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight #5. Nintendo titles remain strong with Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream at #6, while Forza Horizon 6, MLB The Show 26, Minecraft, and NBA 2K26 round out the top 10. The data confirms Star Fox’s top‑five placement and notes Tomodachi Life slipped from #5 to #6.
New Circana data shows that, despite Sony's plan to end physical discs in 2028, only seven PlayStation games have sold more than 100,000 physical copies in the US this year, and just two titles exceeded 10,000 in the week ending July 11, highlighting the ongoing decline of physical PS5 sales amid Sony's disc-free strategy.
May 2026 delivered the worst May for US PS and Xbox console sales on record amid price hikes, with PS5 down 58% YoY and spending down 43%, and Xbox down 12% YoY though spending rose 7%; Nintendo Switch 2 boosted hardware spending by 38% and logged about 5.9 million units in its first year, the second-fastest selling handheld in US history. Analysts warn further price hikes (including an expected August Xbox rise) could curb demand until the holiday season, with a rebound unlikely before 2028 as memory costs rise.