Hardware Sales See Dramatic Increase In Q1 2014 NPD Numbers

A new press release from the NPD states that consumers spent $4.6 billion dollars on video games in the first quarter of this year. That marks a 47% increase in hardware sales (up to $983 million) compared to last year, which can clearly be attributed to the recent release of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Despite the significant hardware increase, total consumer spending dropped 1% from the previous year. 

Source: NPD

Our Take:
As stated in the press release, it's pretty obvious what we can thank for the sales numbers being what they are. It's been a dry quarter for software, so it's good that we have strong hardware sales to keep the overall industry spending numbers up.