What just happened? There are just over three months of 2019 left to go. As such, research firm NPD has released a report on its expectations for the US video games market. It includes predictions on total spending within the industry, along with what it believes will be the best-selling games of this year.
When it comes total US spending across video game content, hardware, and accessories, consumers are expected to hand over $44.6 billion in 2019. That's a modest six percent increase compared to last year and is smaller than the 14 percent growth experienced in 2018 and the 20 percent growth seen in 2017.
The majority of growth---$37.8 billion---comes from content, which covers game sales, DLC, microtransactions, and subscription services. That's up 9 percent YoY, while console and portable hardware sales fell 12 percent and accessory sales were down 8 percent.
The primary reason behind the slow growth is the PS4 and Xbox One console generation coming to an end---a situation that's causing problems for GameStop. With the machines' successors almost certain to arrive next year, it was the Nintendo Switch that drove hardware sales in 2019. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo's popular device is predicted to be the best-selling console of the year.
When it comes to the year's best-selling games, NPD believes the unreleased Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) will top the list, marking the ninth time in eleven years a CoD game has outsold everything else. The only years the franchise wasn't number one were in 2013 when GTA V was top, and 2018 when Red Dead Redemption 2 beat all challengers.
A couple of other games on the list are also unreleased, including the highly anticipated Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint.