The NPD Group recently released October’s sales data for the video game industry and to the surprise of absolutely no one, Activision andCall of Duty: Modern Warfarecleaned house on the month.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfarewas the top-selling game for the month of October 2019, which isn’t anything new for aCall of Dutyrelease. That said,Modern Warfaresold so well in its brief time on the market that it has already become the best-selling game for the entirety of 2019, already surpassingNBA 2K20andMadden NFL 20. With little else in the way of major competition through the remainder of the year,Modern Warfarelikely won’t be unseated from this position, either.
Following behindCall of Duty: Modern Warfareon the month was a slew of other new releases. Private Division’sThe Outer Worlds, which released on the same day asModern Warfare, ended up finding itself slotting in at second place in October. Meanwhile,Luigi’s Mansion 3debuted in third while fourth and fifth were occupied byNBA 2K20andMadden NFL 20.
Here’s the full top-20 list for last month:
And even though it’s obvious as can be at this point, the Nintendo Switch once again was October’s best-selling piece of hardware, as it has been all year long. As we approach the holiday season, the Switch will likely continue to outsell both the PS4 and Xbox one, bolstered by Nintendo’s strong first-party lineup this season.
While it seemed like a successful month for the video game industry overall, sales as a whole were down 34% compared to October 2018, which is shocking on paper. That said, last October saw both the release ofCall of Duty: Black Ops 4andRed Dead Redemption 2, both of which ended up selling incredibly well. Even with the success ofModern Warfarethis past month, no other releases were able to fill the void ofRDR2, which is likely a large reason as to why sales look so much lower this year compared to last.
Below you can watch The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella go over the sales data from this past month in further detail, if you’d like.
