Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Animal Crossing New Horizons have held their positions as the games at the top of this year’s sales chart. With the global coronavirus pandemic keeping players inside their homes, it has been a huge year for video games. Sadly, that same pandemic has also made it hard for publishers to meet deadlines, resulting in the delay of multiple games.
Lockdown blues surely contributed to the triumph of Animal Crossing New Horizons. Nintendo’s adored island simulator game provided players a serene, picturesque escape from the stressful life of being quarantined, and fans went crazy over it.
The game quickly became a cultural phenomenon, and it started to take on a peculiar new life on the internet as people exceeded boundaries of what the game can actually do. One popular fashion designer even organized a runway show inside the game.
US NPD SW – October 2020 Top 20 Sellers pic.twitter.com/G4l8Xnyy0e
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 13, 2020
Meanwhile, Call of Duty Modern Warfare is a less surprising hit. The yearly shooter series has always produced solid games that a lot of gamers are drawn toward, but Modern Warfare pushed the limits with its improved gameplay, though it has drawn controversy for its portrayal of some of the shameful parts of the military scene, such as white phosphorus.
A market research team called the NPD Group, recently took the time to evaluate video game sales figures last October and shared their findings on Twitter through industry analyst Mat Piscatella. The research discovered that consumer spending in the video game industry, including consoles and games, reached $3.8 billion in October, 14% higher compared to the figures a year ago.
As has been reported earlier, both Star Wars Squadrons and FIFA 21 did well in October, ranking number eight and number one for last month’s sales respectively. However, neither title could catch Animal Crossing New Horizons and Call of Duty Modern Warfare, which still holds the number 1 and 2 spots for the year in total.
These games have been on the market for several months now, and the fact that they are still doing this good is very remarkable. It is also worth noting that digital sales were not included for Nintendo games such as Animal Crossing, which certainly performed better than recorded.
This November has witnessed the launch of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, both powerful consoles that players have been looking forward to for several months. The next-gen consoles are already featuring a few impressive games, and more are already on their way.
In addition, it really doesn’t take a market research analyst to understand why the next-gen machines are selling well; vendors can’t keep them on shelves, and demand is extremely high that Walmart’s website crashed numerous times during the PlayStation 5’s release day. The new systems have certainly had a major impact during this November’s video game sales. Time will only tell if the next generation will surpass these two titans.
