November 2017 NPD Confirms Fantastic Month For Video Game Sales

It’s no secret that November and December are traditionally the largest months for spending money on video games. Some of the biggest games of the year release just in time for the all important gift giving holiday season.

Ask anyone with even nominal knowledge of the video game industry what the number one selling game for November was and it’s safe to assume they’ll be able to guess it: Call of Duty: WWII. That’s because it’s been the highest selling game for 9 seasons in a row during its release month, and this year’s no different. Well, except that it has sold even better than usual with the highest debut for a Call of Duty since 2012’s Black Ops 2.

Here are some of the important data points for November 2017:

• Total: $2.68 billion (up 30 percent from $2.072 billion in November 2016)
• Hardware: $1.147 billion (up 52 percent from $754 million)
• Console software: $1.164 billion (up 19 percent from $978 million)
• PC software: $33 million (up 13 percent from $29 million)
• Accessories: $344 million (up 11 percent from $311 million)

The Top 20 selling games for the month of November by revenue were:

1. Call of Duty: WWII
2. Star Wars: Battlefront II
3. Assassin’s Creed: Origins
4. NBA 2K18
5. Madden NFL 18
6. Super Mario Odyssey*
7. FIFA 18
8. Need for Speed: Payback
9. Destiny 2**
10. Pokémon: Ultra Sun*
11. Pokémon: Ultra Moon*
12. Middle-earth: Shadow of War
13. Grand Theft Auto V
14. The Sims 4
15. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
16. Mario Kart 8*
17. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus*
18. South Park: The Fractured But Whole
19. WWE 2K18
20. Just Dance 2018

* No digital sales
** No Battle.net sales

Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey still hung on for the month at number 6 (keep in mind Nintendo’s games don’t factor in digital copies sold, so theoretically they could place higher depending on the amount spent online). Pokémon Ultra Moon & Ultra Sun debuted a bit lower than usual for a Pokémon game, but it’s only a year later from the last iteration and not a ton was changed. It’s also great to see Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 still hanging in the top 20. As more gamers receive Switches for Christmas hopefully they see the light and invest in Zelda!

Thanks to aggressive markdowns for the entire week of Black Friday, the PS4 was the top selling console of the month. It was priced at $199.99 ($100 off) and stores like GameStop and Kohl’s offered bonus money – $50 gift card at the former and $60 vouchers at the latter. This helped propel Sony to the number one spot in consumer spending for hardware and c0ntributed to the 52% year on year growth in the hardware market. The discounting was so successful that the PS4 had its best month ever for PS4s sold. Of course the Switch and Xbox One contributed to the large increase. Although we don’t have hard numbers, we’re hearing the Switch sold around 1 million, which isn’t too bad for not having any discounts or special deals whatsoever.

Below are the Top 10 Switch and 3DS sellers:

Nintendo Switch*

1. Super Mario Odyssey
2. Mario Kart 8
3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
5. Splatoon 2
6. Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
7. Sonic Forces
8. Doom 2016
9. Pokken Tournament DX
10. Just Dance 2018

Nintendo 3DS*

1. Pokémon: Ultra Sun
2. Pokémon: Ultra Moon
3. Pokémon: Ultra Sun & Moon Dual Pack
4. Super Mario Maker
5. Super Smash Bros.
6. Mario Party: The Top 100
7. Minecraft
8. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions
9. Mario Kart 7
10. Pokemon: Sun

Overall it looks like the gaming industry had one of its best month ever for sales. Thanks to new hardware (Switch and Xbox One X), massive markdowns (PS4 and Xbox One S) and major discounts on software and accessories, the market responded big time. How long can Nintendo wait out a price drop on its Switch? I guess that all depends on how fast demand drops off. We’ll see!

[Source: NPD & Venture Beat]

Craig Majaski

Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.