July was brutal for game spending, but GTA 6 preorders are already at $400m apparently

Circana's July report just came out and the whole industry took a hit. Total US video game spending fell 10% year over year to $4.5 billion. Physical software hit an all-time July low of $85 million, which is wild when you think about how long they've been tracking this stuff. Hardware was even worse, down 29% to $282 million, the lowest July since 2020.

Mat Piscatella said unit sales dropped 39% compared to last July, and the average selling price jumped 16% to $542. That price hike is doing a number on console sales. PS5 units fell 6%, Xbox Series dropped 18%, and Switch 2 declined a massive 51%. The Switch 2 is still selling the most units overall though, and it's outselling the original Switch by 11% at the same point in its life. PS5 led in dollar sales because of that higher price point.

Content spending also fell 9% to $4.1 billion, mostly because mobile took a dive. Call of Duty Black Ops 2 was the best selling game in July thanks to that PS5/PS4 port, and EA Sports College Football 27 came in second. Monopoly Go got a huge boost from a Simpsons crossover, and Pokemon Go jumped to third with its 10th anniversary stuff, revenue up 230% month over month.

Resident Evil Requiem is still the best selling game of 2026 so far, but that'll probably change once the holiday releases start piling up. And then there's the GTA 6 preorder number floating around. Apparently it's already at $400 million, which is just absurd for a game that's still three months out. The industry might be in a slump right now, but November 19 is going to blow every one of these charts out of the water.

Source: GameSpot · Curated content.

$400 million in preorders with three months still to go seems almost unreal.

$400 million

That figure might mean the Ultimate Edition uptake is way higher than expected, or maybe retailers are padding initial orders. With console hardware tanking hard right now, you'd think Sony and Microsoft are praying for a GTA bundle announcement to move units. Has anyone seen a breakdown of Standard versus Ultimate sales yet?

What actually caught my eye is the sheer scale of day one. If millions of players hit Leonida simultaneously, the physics engine might show some serious strain. I'm already bracing for weird vehicle spawn behaviors, LOD pop-in near Mount Kalaga, or NPC pileups around Port Gellhorn. Launch week could be a total goldmine for clipping and momentum quirks if the systems start buckling under that load.

$400 million

already and no engine swap details. That number's gonna look LIGHT by launch week.

$400m already and my rp crew still thinks thats conservative. they cleared out ultimates like it was a whitelist drop.