Video game sales spiked 11% through a rocky August thanks to one console, top-selling mobile games, and a popular sports title.

“Year-to-date video game hardware spending has grown 20% versus a year ago, reaching $2.9 billion. Unit sales are up 6.5% year-on-year, with the average selling price increasing by 12.3%, to $453 per unit sold,” wrote Senior Director & Video Game Industry Thought Leader at Circana Mat Piscatella in a post on Bluesky.

Hardware sales rose 32%, but not because of Microsoft or Sony. Xbox and PlayStation dragged the numbers down double digits, according to a recent survey by Circana. Yet, somehow, overall console sales saw growth.

So, who hard carried the rest of the consoles this August?

Related: GameStop takes a swipe at Microsoft after Game Pass blunder

The Nintendo Switch 2, whose sales overcame declines by all other major consoles, putting it on pace to set a record.

“With 2.4M units sold LTD over its first 3 months market, Nintendo Switch 2 is now 5% ahead of the previous record-setting pace of PlayStation 4, which sold 2.2M units during the 3 months ending January 2014,” wrote Piscatella.

Top selling video game consoles of all-time

• Sony PlayStation 2
• Nintendo Switch
• Sony PlayStation 4
• Sony PlayStation
• Nintendo Wii

In keeping with recent trends, however, game content, not hardware, constituted the bulk of sales. Just not necessarily the games you would expect.

Mobile games boost sales

Move over console games, mobile games are here to stay – and make a profit. Aside from one notable release, the 6% increase in mobile game sales was the big takeaway of the month.

The top 10 mobile games for August

• MONOPOLY GO!
• Royal Match
• Last War: Survival
• Candy Crush Saga (Microsoft)
• Clash Royale
• Pokémon Go
• Kingshot
• Whiteout Survival
• Free Fire
• Royal Kingdom

Times are changing. New titles are reshaping the industry, per Sam Aune of Sensor Tower:

“This is a new age of the US top ten. Newcomers like Kingshot and Royal Kingdom are scaling and breaking in, while mainstays like Playrix’s Gardenscapes and Homescapes have been banished to the top twenty. Other evergreen titles like Clash Royale and Free Fire have made comebacks.”

If that’s all gobbledygook to you, put it this way: Mobile gaming’s market share is growing and, for the first time, their sales are helping pull the laggards (cough, traditional console sales, cough) in the industry along.

But don’t throw traditional gaming out with the bathwater. One sports title saved the month for traditional or ‘premium’ (read: console) gaming releases.

August premium game sales

Take-Two Interactive’s NBA2K26, a long-running NBA basketball title, led all comers for August. The title blazed the trail for premium titles, resulting in a 21% jump in overall console content spending.

“NBA 2K26 bucks that trend with a MyCareer mode (for my money the star and core of each annual game) is the best it’s been in years thanks to its amazing prelude storyline,” said Nico Vergara in an IGN review on YouTube.

Overall, five of the six top sellers in August were new games. Here’s what the premium game landscape looked like for August:

Video game subscription services surge in August

Premium games are aimed at and marketed to consumers who already own a console. Notably, this includes hybrid consoles like the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, which can be played at home on a TV or on the go. However, how console-owning consumers are purchasing games has drastically changed.

Video game subscription services are monthly subscriptions that grant console gamers access to a vast library of games. That means users don’t have to buy game titles individually, skewing the numbers and shifting the industry. Readers may have heard a lot about these subscriptions lately in light of Microsoft’s recently proposed price hike to its monthly GamePass service.

The August video game subscription service data below clearly informed Microsoft’s decision (which has since been put on hold).

More gaming:

• Microsoft’s harsh decision frustrates gamers
• Electronic Arts buyout may be loudest edge public rivals ever get
• Another major gaming platform is shutting down

In August, video game subscription service sales blew expectations out of the water, both overall and compared to performance in years past.

These numbers don’t lie, and their consequences have been fascinating. From Mike Piscatella on Bluesky:

“Year-to-date spending on non-mobile video game subscription services is now 19% higher than a year ago, at $3.6B.”

“Non-mobile video game subscription spending grew 25% compared to August 2024”

With that level of growth, no wonder Microsoft was bullish on raising prices. Too bad the gaming community was more unified – and vocal – than they bargained for.

Related: Electronic Arts buyout may be loudest edge public rivals ever get