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Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Leads November's Game Sales
You might not remember, but November of 2015 was a pretty great month for games. Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, and Star Wars: Battlefront all released to strong sales about a year ago. Unfortunately, this year's sales didn't quite measure up. Overall, sales of video games declined by 19 percent compared to what they were around this time last year. The top three selling games of this last November were: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1, and Pokémon: Sun.
When you actually analyze the data, you learn that Battlefield 1 released in October, so it's not too surprising that it's sales were a little down. Pokémon, on the other hand, had the strongest launch in the history of the franchise, but since the game only retails for around $40, it actually contributed less to the overall November sales than a $60 game from last year.
A few other interesting facts worth noting are that the PlayStation 4 was the top-selling hardware system in the month, aided by the introduction of the PS4 Slim Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Bundle, which made up 30 percent of all hardware sales. Not surprisingly, the NES Classic Edition sold really well, shipping 196,000 units. Meanwhile, sales of the Microsoft Xbox Elite controller grew by 46 percent over last year. However, Sony's DualShock 4 was still the month’s number one selling controller overall.
Here’s the full report of the top selling physical sales of software for November 2016:
1. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
2. Battlefield 1
3. Pokemon: Sun (No digital sales included in ranking)
4. Pokemon: Moon (No digital sales included in ranking)
5. Titanfall 2
6. NBA 2K17
7. Madden NFL 17
8. Watch Dogs 2
9. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (No digital sales included in ranking)
10. FIFA 17
For October's NPD numbers head here.
Our Take
This year has been an amazing year for games overall, so I'd take this data with a grain of salt. Even though overall sales are down over last year, there are reasons to account for that. It's also interesting to see that Pokémon is stronger than ever before, likely because of the Pokémon Go phenomenon. Still, it's sad to see that Dishonored 2 isn't on this list.
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