American consumers plunked down $57.2 billion on video games and related products in 2023, the video games industry’s leading trade group announced Wednesday.

The data compiled by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and market research company Circana showed that overall spending on video game products went up $600 million between 2022 and 2023.

Of that increase, $500 million of it came in spending on the actual games themselves, which increased in 2023 to $48 billion.

Spending on gaming accessories such as virtual reality headsets accounted for the rest of the increase, rising 4% from $2.5 billion in 2022 to $2.6 billion in 2023.

Purchases of gaming hardware, including consoles like the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch, remained steady at $6.6 billion for 2023, the ESA said.

“These figures reinforce the position of the video game industry as a growth engine for the United States economy. When combined with the fact that nearly two-thirds of Americans play video games regularly, cutting across all demographics and backgrounds, these results confirm the video game industry’s impact,” Stanley Pierre-Louis, the Association’s CEO, said in the announcement.

The 2023 slate of games helped drive growth and was “one of the best in industry history,” Circana Executive Director of Video Games Mat Piscatella said.

The top three games for consoles and computers were, in order, Hogwarts Legacy, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Madden NFL 24. On mobile devices, the top three games were Monopoly Go!, Candy Crush Saga, and Roblox.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.