‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’ Dominates October 2018 Sales, Per NPD

The NPD numbers are starting to trickle in for last month, which was undoubtedly one of the busiest months in the game industry. And while many were expecting Red Dead Redemption 2 to fully dominate, early numbers indicate that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 took the month by storm.

Analyst Mat Piscatella posted some of the results from the report on his Twitter page, indicating that Black Ops 4 had no trouble seeing steady sales, despite its lack of a single player campaign this time around.

“Record setting October spending driven by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Red Dead Redemption 2 and PlayStation 4,” he noted. Apparently, Rockstar Games’ Western sequel landed a very secure second place spot, despite only being out a few days for the month.

When it came to video game sales in general, the industry saw a 73 percent increase over the previous year, to the tune of $1.5 billion. That’s not bad, and indicates a healthy growth in numbers for this year’s holiday sales. “The $1.55 billion in October 2018 dollar sales represents the highest total spend for a month of October since The NPD Group began tracking the industry in 1995. The previous high was $1.36 billion reached in October 2008,” said Piscatella.

As far as year-to-date sales go, spending has increased 21 percent for the year overall, reaching a whopping $10.5 billion. “This is the highest year-to-date total spend achieved since the $10.9B achieved between January and October 2010.

“Dollar sales of Console, Portable and PC Games Software totaled $965m in October 2018, more than doubling vs. YA,” Piscatella continued. “This represents an all-time high for PC & Video Games Software spending in an October month. The previous best of $743 million was reached in October 2008.”

Then came news about the latest Call of Duty game, which ruled the month. “Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII is the best-selling game of October. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII launch month dollar sales represent the 8th highest in Video Game history since The NPD Group began tracking in 1995.”

As a result, it “instantly becomes the best-selling game of the year and the 2nd best-selling game across the past twelve month period, trailing only Call of Duty: WWII.”

Don’t feel too bad for Red Dead Redemption 2‘s second place finish tho. “With just nine days of reported sales, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the 2nd best-selling game of October 2018 and is now also the 2nd best-selling game year-to-date,” Piscatella noted. “Red Dead Redemption 2 launch month sales more than tripled those of the previous title in the series, Red Dead Redemption, which launched May 2010.”

And Assassin’s Creed Odyssey didn’t do too bad either, landing a good third place spot, followed by an increase of sales for Super Mario Party (after its #9 September debut), which became the third fastest selling Mario Party game, trailing only Mario Party and Mario Party 8.

Soul Calibur VI did very well with a sixth place finish, and “achieved the third highest launch month dollar sales for the franchise in tracked history, trailing only Soul Calibur IV and Soul Calibur II.”

As for hardware spending, it “grew 26 percent when compared to a year ago, to $300 million. Significant gains in spending on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hardware were offset by declines across all other platforms.

“PlayStation 4 was October’s best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars sold. PS4 hardware unit sales achieved an all-time October high for the platform, while PS4 hardware dollar sales reached its highest point for an October month since October 2014.”

The full report can be watched above. And it’ll be an interesting race going into the holiday season, especially with the new titles that were introduced this month. Let’s see where it goes!