The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for November 2020, and it was certainly an interesting month for the industry! Of course, November is the top month of any year, but this time around we also had the release of the new Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Unsurprisingly, numbers were way up year-on-year with players spending $7 billion on games, additional content, and hardware. That’s up 35 percent compared to November 2019.
On the hardware front, the new PlayStation 5 was the top console of the month in terms of total revenue generated, but the Switch beat it out in terms of total units sold. That means the Switch has been the top dog in terms of total units sold for a record-setting 24 straight months. No specific word from NPD on what that Xbox Series X/S sold, but it’s obviously in third place behind the Switch and PS5.
Moving onto software, big franchises dominated the chart, with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War debuting at #1 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla coming in at #2. We also saw some new console exclusives hit the chart, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales at #3, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity at #6, and Demon’s Souls at #10. That Demon’s Souls debut may seem kind of low, but let's remember, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is available on both PS5 and PS4, while Demon’s Souls is a PS5 exclusive. A bit of a reminder of why Sony is sticking to crossgen releases for a lot of its titles for now.
Here are November’s top 20 games according to NPD:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Madden NFL 21
- NBA 2K21
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
- Watch Dogs: Legion
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- FIFA 21
- Demon’s Souls
- Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars
- Just Dance 2021
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
- Luigi’s Mansion 3
- Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Marvel’s Avengers
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Ghost of Tsushima
And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2020 so far (yes, CoD: Black Ops Cold War immediately jumped to the top spot):
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Madden NFL 21
- The Last of Us Part II
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Marvel’s Avengers
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars
Well, there you go, all the fallout from the biggest gaming month of the year! It will be interesting to see what happens from here – will Switch be able to continue winning? Or will the PS5 overtake it as more stock becomes available? We’ll just have to wait and see!
