Modern Warfare 3 tops November sales, natch | Circana November 2023

Name of Responsibility nearly at all times gobbles up year-end gross sales, and Fashionable Warfare 3 isn’t any exception, according to industry-tracking firm Circana. The sport topped the record of best-sellers for November, and is the fifth title within the Name of Responsibility sequence to take action. Nonetheless, sport and {hardware} gross sales have been in decline general for the month, dropping 7% from 2022. {Hardware} gross sales, particularly, dropped 24% year-over-year.

“November online game content material spending dropped 3% when in comparison with a 12 months in the past, to $4.6 billion,” stated Mat Piscatella, Circana’s government producer for video games studies. “An 11% decline in Console & Transportable Content material spending was partially offset by 3% development throughout every of the Cell, Subscription, and ‘PC, Cloud & Non-Console VR’ Content material segments.”

As we famous in October, gaming {hardware} gross sales have been dropping steadily all 12 months, with that month’s gross sales having probably the most precipitous fall of 23%. Now November seems poised to proceed this development, with a 24% drop in contrast with 2022. This truly brings the whole variety of {hardware} gross sales for 2023 down -1% in contrast with the year-to-date interval in 2022 — it was 6% in October

Piscatella added, “A major driver of the year-on-year decline in Console & Transportable Content material was the comparable energy of the brand new launch slate. November 2022 featured the launches of each God of Conflict: Ragnarök and Pokémon: Scarlet/Violet.”

Circana November 2023: High 20 best-selling video games within the U.S.

An uncommon characteristic of November’s chart is that a number of titles have jumped into the High 20 from a lot decrease on the gross sales charts. Simply Dance 2024 and God of Conflict Ragnarok moved up partially because of vacation gross sales. Equally, Hogwarts Legacy moved again as much as the High 5 because of its launch on Nintendo Change, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales seemingly noticed a spike because of the current launch of Spider-Man 2.

November’s releases: What’s there and what’s not there

Out of November’s releases, Fashionable Warfare 3 and Tremendous Mario RPG are the one two that made it into the High 10. Different additions embody Naruto x Boruto: Final Ninja Storm Connections, which admittedly acquired relatively blended critiques on launch; and Star Ocean: The Second Story R, a rerelease of the primary sport within the Star Ocean sequence, initially launched for the PlayStation in 1998.

Piscatella famous that one in all October’s late releases hasn’t appeared on the November charts. Alan Wake 2, which lately gained a number of awards at The Recreation Awards (together with Finest Recreation Course), didn’t seem on the October chart as a result of falling after that chart’s reporting interval. Nonetheless, it’s additionally lacking from the November lists. Piscatella notes this may very well be as a result of Circana doesn’t report on gross sales knowledge from the Epic Video games Retailer, and the sport’s lack of a bodily launch on consoles.

Circana November 2023: Finest-selling video games of the 12 months thus far

The year-to-date rating hints at a attainable upset for the top of 2023: It’s attainable, and even seemingly that Hogwarts Legacy may very well be the best-selling sport of 2023. This could be the primary time in 15 years that the 12 months’s best-selling sport hasn’t been both a Name of Responsibility title or a Rockstar sport, in response to Piscatella’s current interview with IGN. It’s nonetheless attainable that Fashionable Warfare III may lap Hogwarts Legacy by the top of the 12 months.