The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for the big November holiday shopping season, and it was good news for the industry. While sales have been down for most of 2022, they were actually up year-on-year in November, largely due to increased supply of the PS5. Overall, players spent $6.3 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in November, a 6 percent year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, hardware was up a whopping 45 percent as next-gen console shortages finally ease. PS5 was #1 in both unit and dollar sales, followed by the Switch.
Turning to software, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II continues its run on top, followed by the newly-released God of War Ragnarok at #2, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet at #3, and Sonic Frontiers at #4. The only other new release on the list was Tactics Ogre: Reborn at #17. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: Miles Morales jumped from #39 back into the top 10 thanks to a PC release and perhaps all those new PS5 owners looking for a good showcase.
Here are November’s top 20 games according to NPD:
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
2. God of War Ragnarok
3. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
4. Sonic Frontiers
5. Madden NFL 23
6. FIFA 23
7. NBA 2K23
8. Gotham Knights
9. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
10. Mario Party Superstars
11. Elden Ring
12. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
13. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
14. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
15. Persona 5 Royal
16. NHL 23
17. Tactics Ogre: Reborn
18. Minecraft
19. Horizon Forbidden West
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2022 thus far:
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
2. Elden Ring
3. Madden NFL 23
4. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
5. God of War Ragnarok
6. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
7. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
8. Horizon Forbidden West
9. FIFA 23
10. MLB The Show 22
What are your thoughts on the November NPD numbers? Any big surprises? Anyone out there finally get their hands on a PS5?
