We already predicted about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to hit the best-selling game spot in the United States by the end of October. It happened: NPD Group released its October analytics.

Let’s start with the fiscal results: in October 2019, people in America spent 1.03 billion dollars total in the gaming industry, which is a whopping 34% decrease year-on-year. Hardware-wise, the drop is 41%, and there were 22% fewer games sold in the previous month than a year before. The game accessories, game cards also saw a 4% fall. However, in last October, there was Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, as well as Red Dead Redemption 2, and the industry can’t show anything close to them at the end of the console generation.

The Nintendo Switch sold the best once again in October, but even its success wasn’t enough to slow down the drop in console sales (and without the Switch, we might have seen a 50+ per cent drop!). The PlayStation 4’s first six years made it the third best-selling console in that period behind the PlayStation 2 and the Wii. However, Sony did not focus on exclusives this year for the PS4 (Days Gone, Concrete Genie, Death Stranding, although Kojima’s game got a PC port announced BEFORE the PlayStation 4 version became available…), so 2020 will have to make a difference (Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part II, and Nioh 2 could help).

Let’s see October’s top 20:

1.         Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
2.         The Outer Worlds
3.         Luigi’s Mansion 3*
4.         Madden NFL 20
5.         NBA 2K20
6.         Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
7.         WWE 2K20
8.         FIFA 20
9.         Borderlands 3
10. Ring Fit Adventure
11. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening*
12. Mario Kart 8*
13. Minecraft#
14. Grand Theft Auto V
15. Mortal Kombat 11
16. Overwatch
17. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
18. Code Vein
19. Red Dead Redemption II
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

* Digital sales not included

# Digital sales only include Xbox One and PlayStation 4

There aren’t many surprises: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare came, saw, and conquered. The Outer Worlds pulled in the second roster spot, while Nintendo can be happy with the Switch getting third place with Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Ring Fit Adventure also slipped into the top 10. Infinity Ward’s game is ALREADY the best-selling title of 2019, so Call of Duty will likely pull another best-seller year in.

In November, the Nintendo Switch will likely win once again with Pokémon Sword/Shield (although it got some critique), but the PlayStation 4 might compete with it with Death Stranding. We can expect these two titles to be in the top five in November.

Source: Venturebeat, Venturebeat, Venturebeat

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