Game On: U.S. game spending fell 21% year-over-year in June, says Circana

"Game On" is weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks. NEW RELEASES: This week's most notable new release is Microsoft's (MSFT) "Halo: Campaign Evolved," a remake of the single-player campaign of 2001's "Halo: Combat Evolved." The title releasees on July 28 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 (SONY). The release marks the first time a game in the "Halo" franchise will be playable on a PlayStation console. CIRCANA JUNE: Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that U.S. video game total market projected spending reached $4.5B during June 2026, a decrease of 21% when compared to a year ago. First half spending finished 1% behind 2025's pace, at $27.5B. June 2025 featured the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 (NTDOY), which set an all-time U.S. video game hardware launch month sales record of 1.6M units. Nintendo Switch 2's June 2025 debut also drove the highest hardware and accessory spending totals for a June month in US tracked history. June 2026 video game hardware spending declined 62% when compared to a year ago, to $383M, driven by the Nintendo Switch 2 June 2025 launch month comparable. The $383M in June 2026 hardware spending compares to $1B.