The video game console market covering hardware, game content, and services saw $53.9 billion in player spending last year, marking a 19 percent increase compared to 2019 before it.
This is according to data gathered by Ampere Analysis for a recently released report on the console market. According to Ampere's data, this makes 2020 a record year for video game spending on consoles, with growth felt across all three aforementioned categories of that market
Despite gains from Nintendo Switch, the bulk of that spending still took place on PlayStation consoles. The report notes that Sony's market share was around 46 percent in 2020, down from 29 percent in 2019.
Looking at just spending on games, Sony led the pack with 50 percent of all game spending coming from PlayStation players. Analysts at Ampere suspect Sony owes this to both its sizable user base and effective monetization on digital.
Nintendo meanwhile made gains and now represents 31 percent of consumer spending, and is quite a formidable force thanks to the continued success of the Nintendo Switch. According to the report, almost $7 billion was spent on Nintendo hardware last year alone. While it also saw substantial growth in its digital business, those gains weren't yet enough to put it on the same level as Microsoft and Sony.
On the Microsoft front, the company saw roughly 23 percent of that $53.9 total spending. Any gains it made during 2020 seem attributed to its Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions, though Microsoft itself tends to be shy about sharing those numbers with the world.
While subscription services were a big part of Microsoft's 2020, Ampere also notes that the subscription service business is growing across the board though much of that momentum seems to be in Microsoft's corner.