Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Bests Red Dead Redemption, PS4 Top Console in October Per NPD

The NPD Group have released their full North American sales data for October, and, like every month so far in 2018, sales were up year-on-year. Consumers spent $1.5 billion on games and hardware, up a hearty 73 percent from $894 million last year. That’s not a huge shock, as the month saw the release of both Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and the long-awaited Red Dead Redemption 2, although where those two games fall on NPD’s monthly software chart is somewhat surprising. Despite all the hype, and tripling the launch sales of its predecessor, RDR2 came in second place, with Black Ops 4 nabbing the top spot. Of course, RDR2 was only on sale for six days in October, so it wasn’t entirely a fair fight.

On the hardware front, the PS4 chalked up another win, achieving an all-time October sales record. NPD didn’t reveal where the Xbox One and Switch ranked in comparison to the PS4, but, overall, it was a good month for everybody, with hardware sales up 19 percent to $2.7 billion.

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Looking beyond Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2, other October debuts include Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at #3, Super Mario Party at #5, and SoulCalibur VI at #6, which is a great result for a fighting game. On the more disappointing end of things, Forza Horizon 4 debuted out of the top-10 at #11, although you can probably partially chalk that up to people playing the game via Xbox Game Pass.

Here’s NPD’s full August software top 20:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
  2. Red Dead Redemption 2
  3. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
  4. NBA 2K19
  5. Super Mario Party
  6. SoulCalibur VI
  7. FIFA 19
  8. Marvel’s Spider-Man
  9. Madden NFL 19
  10. WWE 2K19
  11. Forza Horizon 4
  12. Lego DC Super Villains
  13. My Hero One’s Justice
  14. Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
  15. Mario Kart 8
  16. Grand Theft Auto V
  17. Super Mario Odyssey
  18. Diablo III
  19. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  20. NHL 19

Here are the best-selling games of 2018 thus far:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
  2. Red Dead Redemption 2
  3. Far Cry 5
  4. Marvel’s Spider-Man
  5. NBA 2K19
  6. God of War
  7. Monster Hunter: World
  8. Madden NFL 19
  9. Grand Theft Auto V
  10. Call of Duty: WWII

So there you are – the results from the most competitive gaming month of the year! What are your thoughts? Did Black Ops 4 pulling off the win surprise you? Which game will be #1 for the full year when the dust settles?

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