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Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim Top U.S. November Sales

Total U.S. game sales for the month of November hit $3 billion and increased just .4 percent year over year, according to retail tracking firm NPD. The reporting period for the month began 10/30/11 and ended 11/26/11.

Here are the known hardware sales for the month (this will be updated):

Xbox 360: 1.7M
PlayStation 3: 900,000
Wii: 860,000
3DS : 795,000
DS: 350,000

“This is the fourth consecutive month in which the Xbox 360 has been the top selling hardware system," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The gap between 360 sales and sales of the next best selling platform was the largest we’ve seen since December 2008 when the Nintendo DS was the top selling system.”

According to NPD, this month marked the best November on record for sales of new physical content. November 2008 was the previous record holder. On the software side, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception sold 700,000 units in the month, NPD revealed to Game Informer, coming in at #7 behind leaders Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The first month sales for Modern Warfare 3 were up 7 percent over last year's Black Ops.

Here are the top 10 new physical game sales for November:

  1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)**
  2. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)**
  3. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**
  4. Assassin's Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)
  5. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360)
  6. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)**
  7. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)**
  8. Saints Row: The Third (360, PS3, PC)**
  9. The Legend of Zelda: SkywardSword (WII)**
  10. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)**

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

Frazier notes the following in her report:

“In one month, Elder Scrolls V:  Skyrim is just about half a million units shy of matching Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in lifetime sales.  Its first month performance was a five-fold increase over Oblivion’s first month sales.  The game garnered outstanding review scores.”

“When looking at the top 10 best selling titles at the SKU level, both Super Mario 3D Land and Halo:  Combat Evolved Anniversary would have been included.”

“Even with Call of Duty coming to market, Battlefield 3 was the third best-selling game of the month, and is now the best-selling title under the Battlefield property.”

“The critically acclaimed Batman:  Arkham City sold well in month two at retail and is now just shy of Batman:  Arkham Asylum’s lifetime unit sales.”

Comments
  • Nice

  • Whee.

  • A lot of the games being here are not surprising. The newest map pack for Call of Duty always sells well. I am very happy to see Battlefield 3 near the top, as it is my prefered game. Really expected Arkham City to be higher up tho
  • In other news, water was spotted in the ocean today.
  • Good for Skyrim and Battlefield! Skyward Sword needs to get higher on that list!
  • Kinda glad MS is doing good in the console market, there struggling in other areas like tablets and mobile devices. Should change this summer possibly, Windows 8 Develper kicks a$$.
    edit: wait how did Saints Row beat Batman? Saints Row was awsome but I swear more were pumped for Archam City
  • Christmas is a great day. All the little kids get MW3, and they all suck. I call them Christmas noobs.
  • and WWE 12 is no where on the list.. thanks GI for posting an honest review of that debacle..! THQ /fix WWE 12.
  • More people need to buy Arkham City.
  • If anyone is legitimately surprised by how the games were ordered in success, I will be surprised they even have an account on a gaming site in the interwebz.
  • Skyrim is one "FUS RO DAH" away from being top of the list. But who was surprised CoD took that spot?
  • I wish they put out sales numbers still. It is a bummer not getting a full look at the numbers anymore.
  • Saints Row 3 needs to be higher.At least MW3 is #1.
  • I guess Nintendo should feel pretty good since it's game was on a single platform and did as good as the other multi-platforms.
  • skyrim is not on top because it took an arrow in the knee
  • I kinda expected(hoped)  Saint's Row, Batman, Skyward Sword and Uncharted 3 would've been higher on that list

  • need to pick up just dance 3 to be one of the sad saps to have every game on this list.

  • Woot Skyrim :D

  • I'm really happy for all the dev teams. Most of those games are pretty awesome and definitely deserve those sales.
  • big surprise mw3 (mw2.5) made 1st... i hate the idiots that waste their money on that crap every year....
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