October 2018 NPD: Call of Duty still outsells Red Dead Redemption II

Author: Jeff Grubb / Source: VentureBeat

Gaming consumers in the United States spent $1.545 billion in October, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. That is up year-over-year, and it’s little surprise considering two of the biggest games of 2018 debuted during the month.

“October 2018 tracked spending across video game hardware, software, accessories and game cards grew 73 percent when compared to a year ago, to $1.5 billion,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “All categories of spend reflected growth, with sales of PC & video games software more than doubling when compared to October 2017.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption II were the biggest drivers of that growth. And Piscatella notes that their combined power broke some of the NPD’s records.

“The $1.55 billion in October 2018 dollar sales represents the highest total spend for a month of October since The NPD Group began tracking the industry in 1995,” said Piscatella. “The previous high was $1.36 billion reached in October 2008.”

Here are the numbers for October:

• Total: $1.545 billion (up 73 percent from $894 million in October 2017)
• Hardware: $300 million (up 26 percent from $238 million)
• PC and console software: $965 million (up 104 percent from $473 million)
• Accessories: $280 million (up 54 percent from $182 million)

Here’s how 2018 is comparing so far to 2017 in terms of year-to-date dollar sales:

• Total: $10.52 billion (up 21 percent from $8.67 billion in 2017 year to date)
• Hardware: $2.72 billion (up 19 percent from $2.29 billion)
• PC and console software: $4.84 billion (up 16 percent from $4.18 billion)
• Accessories: $2.96 billion (up 35 percent from $2.19 billion)

Let’s get to the software charts.

The best-selling games of October 2018 in the U.S.

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers.

But not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.

These charts are sorted by dollar sales — not number of units sold.

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII**
2. Red Dead Redemption II
3. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
4. NBA 2K19
5. Super Mario Party*
6. Soul Calibur VI
7. FIFA 19**
8. Marvel’s Spider-Man
9. Madden NFL 19**
10. WWE 2K19
11. Forza Horizon 4
12. Lego DC Super Villains
13. My Hero One’s Justice
14. Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
15. Mario Kart 8*
16. Grand Theft Auto V
17. Super Mario Odyssey*
18. Diablo III**
19. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
20. NHL 19

*Does not include digital sales.
**Does not include PC digital sales.

“Dollar sales of Console, Portable and PC Games Software totaled $965 million in October 2018, more than doubling compared to a year ago,” said Piscatella. “This represents an all-time high for PC & Video Games Software spending in an October month. The previous best of $743 million was reached in October 2008.”

And yeah, you can chalk up the bulk of those sales to Call of Duty moving into October and Red Dead Redemption II finally coming out. Those games have actually supercharged the industry’s totals for the year.

“Year-to-date dollar sales of Console, Portable and PC Games Software reached $4.8 billion, up 16 percent versus a year ago,” said Piscatella. “This is the highest year-to-date total for Software spending since the $5.3 billion achieved in the year-to-date 2011 comparable…

Click here to read more

The post October 2018 NPD: Call of Duty still outsells Red Dead Redemption II appeared first on FeedBox.