October snapped a five-month streak of year-over-year growth in US consumer spending on games, according to the latest report from Circana.
US consumers spent $4.04 billion on gaming for the month, down 5% year-over-year, the first decline for the industry since another 5% dip in April.
A significant chunk of the decline was driven by shifting release dates for the Call of Duty series. Last year’s October numbers benefitted from the launch of the best-selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, while this year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released in the November reporting period.
This year’s October still boasted a strong crop of new releases, with six games debuting in the Top Ten software charts.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 claimed the top spot, relegating Super Mario Bros. Wonder to second place, although their figures aren’t quite an apples-to-apples comparison as Circana does not report digital sales of Nintendo first-party titles.
As for other big new releases, Assassin’s Creed: Mirage managed third place, while UFC 5, NHL 24, and Sonic Superstars took the seventh, eighth, and ninth spots, respectively.
By Circana’s numbers, Spider-Man 2 is already the fourth best-selling game of the year, behind only Hogwarts Legacy, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Madden NFL 24 in that order.
One new release not included on the chart is the PlayStation version of free-to-play platform Roblox, which Circana said ranked fourth among all PS5 titles for monthly active users, behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Fortnite and Spider-Man 2.
On the mobile front, Circana partner Sensor Tower found consumer spending up 2.1% year-over-year, with Monopoly Go retaining its position as the highest grossing title.
Sensor Tower also singled out Clash of Clans and Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes as established games seeing the largest month-over-month revenue growth in October. Clash of Clans jumped eight spots on the highest grossing chart, while Galaxy of Heroes boosted its revenue 66% month-over-month.
Overall consumer spending on game content (including full games, microtransactions, DLC, and subscriptions) was down 4% to $3.56 billion.
Console hardware sales took a particularly big hit for the month, down 23% year-over-year to $327 million, as all current-generation hardware saw double-digit declines in dollar sales year-over-year.
PS5 was the best-selling system whether looking at units or dollar amount, while Switch took second on units sold and Xbox Series X|S was the runner-up when looking at dollars spent.
As for accessories, spending was down 2% to $147 million with the “Midnight Black” PS5 Dual Sense controller drawing the most money from consumers.
Here are the top 20 selling games from the period of October 1 to October 28, data courtesy of Circana:
Rank | Last month rank | Title |
---|---|---|
1 | NEW | Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 |
2 | NEW | Super Mario Bros. Wonder* |
3 | NEW | Assassin’s Creed: Mirage |
4 | 4 | Madden NFL 24 |
5 | 3 | EA Sports FC 24 |
6 | 2 | Mortal Kombat 1 |
7 | NEW | UFC 5 |
8 | NEW | NHL 24 |
9 | NEW | Sonic Superstars |
10 | 9 | Hogwarts Legacy |
11 | 10 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) |
12 | NEW | Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 |
13 | 6 | NBA 2K24* |
14 | 1 | Starfield |
15 | 18 | Elden Ring |
16 | 7 | The Crew: Motorfest |
17 | NEW | Forza Motorsport (2023) |
18 | 11 | Star Wars Jedi: Survivor |
19 | 14 | Minecraft |
20 | NEW | Lords of the Fallen (2023)* |
*Digital sales not included