Black Ops 6 is coming October 25.
Image Credit: Activision
Despite an overall downward-ish trend in sales throughout 2024, October managed to show positive growth, according to industry-tracking firm Circana. This appears to be thanks, in part at least, to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which was the best-selling game of the month — however, it was just one of many October titles to make it onto the month’s list.
| October 2024 Dollar Sales, Millions | Oct 2023 |
Oct 2024 |
Change |
| Total Video Game Sales | $4,254 | $4,662 | 10% |
| Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC and VR platforms) | $3,770 | $4,227 | 12% |
| Video Game Hardware | $323 | $249 | -23% |
| Video Game Accessories | $162 | $187 | 15% |
Hardware sales are still down, but not to the extent that they have been in previous months. In September, hardware sales fell by 44% year-over-year, while they fell 23% in October. Unlike last month, overall game sales and content sales didn’t trend downward — in fact, overall sales rose by 10%, the highest amount of growth since July.
Mat Piscatella, Circana’s executive producer for games reports, said in a statement, “Video game content spending increased by 12% versus a year ago, reaching $4.2 billion. Console content was the biggest contributor to the overall gain, with a spending increase of 27% when compared to a year ago, fueled by digital full game sales. Non-mobile video game subscription spending increased by 16% when compared to a year ago. The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as part of Xbox Game Pass was the primary growth driver.”
| Year-to-Date 2024 Dollar Sales, Millions | 2023 YTD |
2024 YTD |
Change |
| Total Video Game Sales | $44,841 | $45,360 | 1% |
| Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC and VR platforms) | $38,907 | $40,423 | 4% |
| Video Game Hardware | $3,973 | $2,815 | -29% |
| Video Game Accessories | $1,960 | $2,122 | 8% |
According to Piscatella, sales for all of the major consoles were down, with Switch sales dropping the most at 38% year-over-year, followed by PlayStation 5 sales by 20% and Xbox Series sales by 18%. Accessories spending, on the other hand, increased, with the PlayStation Portal holding its place as the best-selling accessory.
Circana October 2024: Top 20 best-selling games in the U.S.
| Rank | Last Month Rank |
Title | Publisher |
| 1 | NEW | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | Microsoft (Corp) |
| 2 | NEW | Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| 3 | NEW | Silent Hill 2 (2024) | Konami Digital Ent. |
| 4 | NEW | Undisputed | Plaion |
| 5 | NEW | Metaphor: ReFantazio | Sega |
| 6 | NEW | Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Electronic Arts |
| 7 | NEW | Super Mario Party Jamboree* | Nintendo |
| 8 | 3 | Madden NFL 25 | Electronic Arts |
| 9 | NEW | Sonic X Shadow Generations | Sega |
| 10 | 1 | EA Sports FC 25 | Electronic Arts |
| 11 | 5 | EA Sports College Football 25 | Electronic Arts |
| 12 | 4 | The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom* | Nintendo |
| 13 | 8 | Hogwarts Legacy | Warner Bros. Games |
| 14 | 9 | NHL 25 | Electronic Arts |
| 15 | 2 | Astro Bot | Sony (Corp) |
| 16 | 14 | Minecraft^^ | Multiple Video Game Manufacturers |
| 17 | 7 | NBA 2K25* | Take-Two Interactive |
| 18 | NEW | Life is Strange: Double Exposure | Square Enix Inc (Corp) |
| 19 | 90 | Final Fantasy I-VI Bundle | Square Enix Inc (Corp) |
| 20 | 13 | Elden Ring | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
^^ Digital sales on Nintendo platforms not included
It’s probably not a surprise to see Call of Duty take the top spot — it’s practically a tradition for the launch month of each new game in the series. It’s almost more of a surprise that Black Ops 6 didn’t immediately displace EA Sports College Football 25 or Helldivers 2 from the year-to-date best-sellers list, though perhaps that’s due to this Circana report only having a few days of sales with which to work.
Circana’s information indicates Black Ops 6 isn’t just a successful game, but it’s also done better than Modern Warfare III did last year: Full game dollar sales for the former were 23% higher than the latter over its first two weeks on the market. Piscatella explicitly says the increase in total video game sales year-over-year is “driven primarily by the debut of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, as compared to the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) during the November tracking period a year ago.”
The rest of October wasn’t too shabby either
Call of Duty may have dominated October’s best-seller list, but it’s far from the only new game to make it onto the list. Nine new games made it onto the list and take up eight of the top 10 slots. Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero! is the second best-selling game of the month, and is the 3rd best-selling Bandai Namco-published game in history, behind Elden Ring and Dark Souls III. It’s also the only game of the nine on the monthly list to join Black Ops 6 on the year-to-date best-seller chart.
Similarly, Silent Hill 2 Remake debuted at 3rd place and is the 2nd-best-selling Silent Hill game of all time, behind only the original Silent Hill 2. Other major October releases, including Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Super Mario Party: Jamboree, Sonic X Shadow Generations and Life is Strange: Double Exposure all benefit from their brand recognition, but Metaphor: ReFantazio manages to jump up the list as a new IP. Perhaps the most impressive new game is Undisputed, the boxing game and debut title from Steel City Interactive.
Circana October 2024: 20 best-selling games of 2024 so far
| Rank | Last Month Rank |
Title | Publisher |
| 1 | 1 | EA Sports College Football 25 | Electronic Arts |
| 2 | 2 | Helldivers II | Sony (Corp) |
| 3 | NEW | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | Microsoft (Corp) |
| 4 | NEW | Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| 5 | 3 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) | Microsoft (Corp) |
| 6 | 7 | Madden NFL 25 | Electronic Arts |
| 7 | 4 | EA Sports MVP Bundle | Electronic Arts |
| 8 | 5 | Elden Ring | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| 9 | 6 | Dragon’s Dogma II | Capcom USA |
| 10 | 10 | EA Sports FC 25 | Electronic Arts |
| 11 | 8 | MLB: The Show 24^ | Multiple Video Game Manufacturers |
| 12 | 9 | WWE 2K24** | Take-Two Interactive |
| 13 | 11 | Hogwarts Legacy | Warner Bros. Games |
| 14 | 12 | Grand Theft Auto V** | Take-Two Interactive |
| 15 | 13 | Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth | Square Enix Inc (Corp) |
| 16 | 14 | Tekken 8 | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| 17 | 15 | NBA 2K24** | Take-Two Interactive |
| 18 | 17 | Minecraft^^ | Multiple Video Game Manufacturers |
| 19 | 16 | Madden NFL 24 | Electronic Arts |
| 20 | 18 | Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League | Warner Bros. Games |
** Aug-Oct digital sales not included
^^ Digital sales on Nintendo platforms not included
As stated above, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero! were the only October games to make it to the year-to-date list, but debuting at 3rd and 4th place, respectively, isn’t a bad result. Given November and holiday sales, Black Ops 6 may even move further up the ranks.
GB Daily
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