We are nearing the end of 2019, and the big game releases just keep coming and coming. Yesterday, the NPD Group released the data on how the video game industry fared in the United States during the month of October. When compared to last year, October 2019 didn’t seem too hot as spending across all tracked categories fell 34% to $1.03 billion. However, October 2018 saw the release of the top 2 best selling games of last year in Red Dead Redemption II and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Thus, disregarding that comparative, October 2019 was the second best October for the industry of the decade just behind October 2018.
As aforementioned, by not having the 2 biggest releases of the year, spending on software fell 37% to $620 million when compared to last year. However, the month became the third best October for software sales ever behind 2018 and 2008. Placing first for the month and becoming the best selling game of the year was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This isn’t shocking as the game set numerous records upon its release.
Elsewhere on the chart, Obsidian’s newest hit RPG, The Outer Worlds, placed second on the list. The newest entry in Nintendo’s spookiest franchise, Luigi’s Mansion 3, placed third for the month with only 3 days of tracking and no digital sales counted. 4 sports games placed in the top 10 with last month’s best selling game, and former best selling game of the year, NBA 2K20 placing fifth on the list.
You can see the Top 10 best selling games for the month of October below:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- The Outer Worlds
- Luigi’s Mansion 3*
- Madden NFL 20
- NBA 2K20
- Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
- WWE 2K20
- FIFA 20
- Borderlands 3
- Ring Fit Adventure
*: Digital Sales not included
On the hardware side of things, console sales continue to fall, aside from the Nintendo Switch, with sales falling 41% to $182 million when compared to last year. To no surprise, the Nintendo Switch was the best selling console during the month ad of the year overall. While sales are declining for the PlayStation 4, the NPD Group reported that over the course of its 6 years on the market, the console has had the third best sales behind the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii respectively.