With Sony already announcing that the PlayStation 4 won November 2015, the NPD has posted their full report, revealing that it was the best month ever for 8th generation consoles.
In terms of total sales in the United States for November 2015, the industry was up 2% to $2.47 billion, compared to last year. This includes an 11% increase to $1.12 billion for hardware, a 7% drop to $1.02 billion for new software sales (including PC), and a 6% increase to $357.7 million for accessories.
Here’s what NPD analyst Liam Callahan said about the results:
Growth was driven by console hardware, up 14 percent, which offset a 31 percent decline in portable hardware. November 2015 marked the best month ever in total unit sales for 8th generation consoles (Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U), surpassing sales of December 2014 (now second-highest), and November 2014 (now third-highest).
Overall in November 2015, “8th generation sales had 93% share of overall hardware sales, a nine percentage point increase from last November.” Comparing the PS4 and Xbox One to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, combined sales for the new consoles after 25 months are 47% higher.
Taking a closer look at software, portable sales dropped 66%, while console software sales dropped just 1%.
In the chart, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 sold more copies than last year’s Advanced Warfare. Despite Sony signing the timed-exclusivity deal with Activision for map packs, Black Ops 3 sold more copies on Xbox One than PS4, though it’s worth noting that the NPD doesn’t track copies sold inside the 1TB PS4 console.
Fallout 4, meanwhile, outsold Fallout: New Vegas by 70% and Fallout 3 by 9%, with sales close to that of Skyrim’s. As for Star Wars Battlefront, it saw the best first month for any Star Wars game, outselling Star Wars: The Force Unleashed by 21%.
Here’s the top 10 selling games for November 2015 (November 1 through 28), which totals retail sales across all systems and includes Collectors Editions, GOTY Editions, and bundles, but not those bundled with hardware (sales by platform are ranked in brackets from highest-selling to least-selling):
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
- Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- Star Wars: Battlefront (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- Need For Speed (PS4, Xbox One)
- Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One)
- Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- Just Dance 2016 (Wii, Wii U, 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
You can see October 2015’s NPD results over here.
[Source: Games Industry]
