For the eighth year on the trot, Call of Duty reigned supreme in US retail charts, after Infinite Warfare was crowned the highest-selling console game of 2016 at retail based on “year-to-date revenues from physical unit sales.”
That places it at the tip-top of NPD’s sales chart for the month of November (see below), though after enjoying the “strongest launch in the history of the franchise,” combined sales of Pokemon Sun and Moon actually place Nintendo’s games ahead of Infinite Warfare in the standings – and that’s without factoring in digital sales for the two Pokemon titles.
Overall, software sales were down 18 percent – from $1.17 billion to $955.2 million, to be specific – and that’s a trend we’ve seen unfold over the past few months with the likes of Titanfall 2, Watch Dogs 2, Dishonored 2 and other heavy-hitters turning in disappointing sales figures. Heck, the latter failed to crack into NPD’s software charts whatsoever.
According to the NPD group, that overall dip can be attributed to the strength of last year’s offerings, when Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront all dropped in November. Sam Naji, an analyst for NPD, offered up some perspective on that decline:
“Software spending in November 2016 declined by 19 percent compared to this time last year. The decline can be fully attributed to the top 3 selling games which, combined, sold 43 percent less than the top 3 games from last November. Combined spending across all other titles grew 12 percent in November compared with a year ago.”
After topping October’s software chart, DICE’s Battlefield 1 occupies second place, while The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition managed to claw its way into the top ten on physical sales alone. Here’s the official list, with the asterisk denoting that digital sales were not accounted for.
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Battlefield 1
- Pokemon Sun*
- Pokemon Moon*
- Titanfall 2
- NBA 2K17
- Madden NFL 17
- Watch Dogs 2
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*
- FIFA 17
Circling back to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, there’s no mention of official figures from Activision, though CNBC recently reported that sales were roughly half that of Black Ops III – something that was reflected in the shooter’s UK performance, too.
