October 2024 Circana (NPD) covers the four-week period from October 6 to November 2 and will be released on November 22 (Delayed from November 20).

Since Circana (NPD) leaks don't happen nearly as often as it used to and hardware revenue is something we do get, be sure to include revenue in your predictions.

Feel free to also predict what you think the top software games will be for the month.

Example prediction:

[Total Hardware Revenue]

1. [#1 selling console] XXX,000
2. [#2 selling console] XXX,000
3. [#3 selling console] XXX,000

VGChartz US estimates for October 2023:

1. PS5 - 311K
2. XSX|S - 205K
3. NS - 205K

Potential boost to sales:

• PS5 discounted by $50 from October 6-12, Oct 15 on PS Direct
  • $449 - PS5 standard
  • $449 - PS5 DE with NBA 2K25
  • $399 - PS5 DE
• 3 New Xbox Series models released on October 15
  • $349 - Xbox Series S – 1TB in Robot White
  • $449 - Xbox Series X – 1TB Digital Edition in Robot White
  • $599 - Xbox Series X – 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition

Upcoming Circana (NPD) release dates (subject to change as Circana has delayed reports in the past):

• Oct (Oct 6 - Nov 2) - Nov 22
• Nov (Nov 3 - Nov 30) - Dec 18
• Dec (Dec 1 - Jan 4) - Jan 22

RESULTS

TLDR

Units: PS5 > XS > NS
Revenue: PS5 > XS > NS

Link to the VGChartz article here.

PS5 Best-Seller in the US in October, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Top Selling Game

The PlayStation 5 was once again the best-selling console in the US in October 2024 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the four-week period of October 6 to November 2.

The Xbox Series X|S came in second place in terms of units sold and dollar sales. Nintendo Switch came in third place in terms of units sold and dollar sales.

The PS5 with a disc drive accounted for 65 percent of PS5 sales, while the PS5 Digital Edition accounted for 35 percent. The Xbox Series X accounted for 58 percent of Xbox Series X|S sales, while the Xbox Series S accounted for 42 percent.

In terms of revenue, the Xbox Series X|S had the smallest drop with revenue down 18 percent year-on-year, followed by the PS5, which was down 20 percent year-on-year. Revenue for the Nintendo Switch dropped the most with it down 48 percent. Total hardware spending dropped 23 percent year-on-year.

There was a total of 604,000 units of hardware sold in October 2024, which is down from 759,000 units sold a year ago. This figure includes the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Arcade, and Plug-N-Play.

Overall spending on video games in October increased 10 percent year-on-year from $4.25 billion to $4.66 billion. Spending on video game content increased 12 percent from $3.77 billion to $4.23 billion, while video game hardware sales dropped 23 percent from $323 million to $249 million. Spending on accessories increased 15 percent from $162 million to $187 million.

"Projected October 2024 total U.S. spending on video game hardware, content and accessories grew 10% when compared to a year ago, to $4.7 billion," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella. "Year-to-date spending is now 1% above a year ago, at $45.4 billion."

In terms of 2024 year-to-date sales through October, overall spending on video games is up one percent year-on-year from $44.84 billion to $45.36 billion. Spending on video game content increased four percent from $38.91 billion to $40.42 billion, while video game hardware sales dropped 29 percent from $3.97 billion to $2.82 billion. Spending on accessories increased eight percent from $1.96 billion to $2.12 billion.

The PlayStation Portal was once again the best-selling accessory in terms of dollar sales for October.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling game in October and is already the third best-selling game of 2024. Dollar sales for the game after two weeks are 23 percent higher than 2023's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

The PlayStation versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 accounted for 82 percent of the total console full game dollar sales. The game was available as a day one release on Xbox Game Pass, which caused a spending boost in subscription services for the month. 

Piscatella said Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass day one "shifted share of full game sales to PlayStation, did not appear to result in massive cannibalization of sales, and did not appear to provide a significant boost to Xbox Series hardware."

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero debuted in second place in October and is the fourth best-selling game of 2024. After just one month the game is already the best-selling Dragon Ball video game of all-time in the US in terms of dollar sales and is the third best-selling Bandai Namco Entertainment published titles in history. Only Elden Ring and Dark Souls III have sold more.

The remake of Silent Hill 2 debuted in third place and is already the second best-selling Silent Hill video game in the US in terms of lifetime dollar sales. Only the original Silent Hill 2 sold more. It is also the 28th best-selling game of 2024.

There were several other new releases in the top 20 this month. Undisputed debuted in fourth place, Metaphor: ReFantazio debuted in fifth place, Dragon Age: The Veilguard debuted in sixth place, Super Mario Party Jamboree debuted in seventh place, Sonic X Shadow Generations debuted in ninth place, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure debuted in 18th place.

EA Sports College Football 25 is on the verge of becoming the best-selling sports video game of all-time in US history.

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for October 2024:

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in 2024 year-to-date:

Here are the top 10 games played on the PlayStation 5 ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 10 games played on the Xbox Series X|S ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 10 games played on Steam ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on PlayStation platforms in October 2024:

Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Xbox platforms in October 2024:

Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Nintendo platforms in October 2024:

PS5 250k
Xbox 150k
NS 150k

Revenue 250 million

PS5 - 300K
XSX|S - 180K
NS - 150K

Report delayed by 2 days to November 22. Mat Piscatella needs to take a couple of personal days off earlier that week.

PS5- 400k
Xbox- 180k
Switch- 190k

NPD report is out now. I'm working on the breakdown article right now. 

So I was pretty much on point. Great!

https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3lbk5alqhuk2w

"PlayStation platforms accounted for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 total console full game dollar sales volume during the October tracking period."
- Mat Piscatella

Wow... thats crazy.

82% of console sales for it, where on Playstation.
There is no way, Xbox ever makes this a exclusive..... its way to massive on playstation, for them to do so.
Imagine they did and suddenly it only sells 1/5th of what it normally does? and then that trickles down to microtransactions ect as well.

I am surprised CoD didn't immediately take top spot for the year. Guess Helldivers 2 and College Football really sold great.

Also good to get total hardware units. Now if we can just get more splits.

NPD numbers are ranked by dollar sales and not copies sold.

It's even more impressive that Helldivers 2 managed to stay above COD despite being $40 vs COD's $70

That just means that Helldivers 2 copies sold is much higher than COD.