Animal Crossing: New Horizons Hits It Big As Game Spending Soars

We already knew that people were turning to games to pass the time as we practice social distancing and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, but today, we're getting an idea of just how much that's happening. As it turns out, March 2020 was a huge month for game spending, with titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and DOOM Eternal unsurprisingly coming out on top.

So says SuperData, which reported today that worldwide spending on digital games topped $10 billion in March, which is not only an 11% increase over March 2019 but also the highest monthly total ever recorded. SuperData also says that premium console revenue rose 64% during the month – climbing from $883 million from February to $1.5 billion in March – while premium PC revenue made a similar month-over-month climb of 53%, jumping from $363 million to $567 million.

READ MORE: Animal Crossing: New Horizons ReviewIt sounds like Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the big star of March, topping SuperData's list of top-grossing console games for the month. The game apparently moved 5 million digital copies in March, which is more than any game that came before it. To put things in perspective, SuperData says that Animal Crossing: New Horizons "roughly matched the first-month digital sales of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Pokemon Sword and Shield put together."

So, if there was any question as to whether or not Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a success, we apparently have our answer. SuperData also says that DOOM Eternal enjoyed a big increase in revenue over its predecessor – while DOOM 2016 sold 957,000 digital copies during its first month on shelves, DOOM Eternal pulled down a whopping 3 million digital sales in March.

Other winners from last month include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which enjoyed a huge user base boost because of the launch of Warzone, and Half-Life: Alyx, which pulled in 860,000 players in March. For more on March 2020's big winners in the games industry, check out SuperData's full report.