November 2022 NPD: God of War, Sonic and Pokémon chart high

Several of November’s game releases have shot to the top — well, close to the top — of the charts, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. Consumer spending in the U.S. is also slightly higher than it was last year, thanks in part to a surge in hardware sales. Overall spending for the year is still down slightly compared with 2021.

“Strong hardware performance in the month of November (45% increase vs. year ago to $1.3 billion) was due primarily to a significant increase in PlayStation 5 volume when compared to a year ago,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. “PlayStation 5 was November’s best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales, while Nintendo Switch ranked 2nd across both measures. PlayStation 5 remains the best-selling hardware platform of 2022 in year-to-date dollar sales, while Nintendo Switch leads in units.”

The increase in hardware sales is likely driven in part by holiday sales. Piscatella noted in a LinkedIn post that sales of hardware bundles (which can be slightly more expensive than the consoles alone) are counted towards hardware sales, not software. An increase in available units to purchase also likely helped move the needle.

Piscatella added, “November’s strong performance brings year-to-date spending to $49.0 billion, a 6% decline when compared to the same period in 2021.”

November 2022 NPD: Top 20 best-selling games of the month in the U.S.

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. Not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party sales and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.

These charts are sorted by dollar sales — not number of units sold. And this is for full-game sales and does not include in-game spending.

While several new releases are jockeying for 2nd place on the charts, they haven’t toppled Modern Warfare II. In fact, in terms of year-to-date sales, MWII has officially dethroned Elden Ring — which just won Game of the Year at the Game Awards — as the best-seller. It also now outranks Bandai Namco’s hit as the best-selling game of the year and the last 12 months.

In response to the NPD report, Activision president Rob Kostich said in a statement, “From the start, the excitement for Modern Warfare II has been incredible. We’re grateful to our fans, who have come together in record numbers. We know our players always have many entertainment choices in front of them, which our teams recognize and are constantly driving to create exciting, new experiences. Our first mid-season content refresh is only days away, and there’s so much more to come in 2023.”

November releases shoot up the charts

November saw the release of several popular franchise games. God of War Ragnarök, Elden Ring’s primary competitor at The Game Awards, immediately jumped to 2nd place. Considering it was ones Sony’s most successful first-party launches to date, it’s not a shock. It’s also charting in the year’s top-selling games, and tops PlayStation’s own charts (see below).

The other major franchise release this month was Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, which also made it onto the best-seller list at rank 3. Considering both Legends: Arceus and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl have both remained on at least one of these charts all year, this is also not surprising. Sonic Frontiers, however, is doing almost as well as the other two at rank 4. While Sonic has just as much name recognition, it’s a bit of a surprise (but a gratifying one) to see it running so closely with the leaders of the pack.

Black Friday boosts numbers for games on sale

As the charts show, several games that were further down the list have jumped up some places. It’s not as dramatic a leap as, say, October’s Persona and Nier boosts, but it’s worth noting all the same. Mario Party Superstars, for example, went from 47th place to 10th thanks to being half-off during the sale period. Similarly, Forbidden West and Miles Morales got a sales boost thanks to holiday price cut.

November 2022 NPD: 20 best-selling games of 2022 so far

November 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling games of the last 12 months

November 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Nintendo-platform games in the U.S.

November 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling PlayStation-platform games in the U.S.

November 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Xbox-platform games in the U.S.