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November NPD 2017

Ostrava04

Ostrava04

Member
https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/14/november-npd-2017-call-of-duty-wwii-leads-2-7-billion-month-as-sales-are-up-30-year-over-year/
The video game industry was booming last month as holiday spending kicked in. Spending was up across the board, totaling $2.68 billion and up 30 percent over November 2016, according to the industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. Publisher Activision’s and developer Sledgehammer Games’s Call of Duty: WWII was the biggest winner last month, becoming the best-selling game of 2017 and for the past 12 months.

“Call of Duty: WWII generated more launch month consumer spending than any Call of Duty debut since the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II in November 2012,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said.

Here are the numbers for November 2017:

Total: $2.68 billion (up 30 percent from $2.072 billion in November 2016)
Hardware: $1.147 billion (up 52 percent from $754 million)
Console software: $1.164 billion (up 19 percent from $978 million)
PC software: $33 million (up 13 percent from $29 million)
Accessories: $344 million (up 11 percent from $311 million)

The NPD report doesn’t cover total market spend, and it is missing certain data (such as digital sales from Blizzard’s store on its Battle.net service). It is more of a snapshot of the market as a whole, using data from participating publishers and platforms.
Software

Overall

Call of Duty: WWII
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
NBA 2K18
Madden NFL 18
Super Mario Odyssey*
FIFA 18
Need for Speed: Payback
Destiny 2**
Pokémon: Ultra Sun*
Pokémon: Ultra Moon*
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Grand Theft Auto V
The Sims 4
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
Mario Kart 8*
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus*
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
WWE 2K18
Just Dance 2018

* No digital sales
** No Battle.net sales

Overall, software spending is up 6 percent year-to-date, generating $5.4 billion. Folks spent $1.2 billion on software last month, up 19 percent from November 2016. And a lot of them were shelling out cash for the blockbuster hit Call of Duty: WWII, which launched on November 3. Thanks to strong franchises like Call of Duty and Destiny, Activision Blizzard remains the top-selling publisher of 2017.

“Call of Duty is the top-ranking revenue generating franchise in tracked history,” said Piscatella.

It wasn’t a shabby month for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Origins either, which dropped from No. 2 last month to No. 3. Since its launch in October, NPD says that it’s generated the highest consumer spend for the franchise since Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag in 2013.

The racing genre continue gain traction. In October, sales doubled year-over-year thanks to games like Forza Motorsport 7 and Gran Turismo Sport. In November, sales tripled.

Xbox One

Call of Duty: WWII
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
NBA 2K18
Madden NFL 18
FIFA 18
Need for Speed: Payback
Destiny 2
Forza Motorsport 7
Middle-earth: Shadow of War

PlayStation 4

Call of Duty: WWII
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
NBA 2K18
Madden NFL 18
FIFA 18
Need for Speed: Payback
Destiny 2
Grand Theft Auto V
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus*

Nintendo Switch*

Super Mario Odyssey
Mario Kart 8
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Splatoon 2
Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Sonic Forces
Doom 2016
Pokken Tournament DX
Just Dance 2018

Nintendo 3DS*

Pokémon: Ultra Sun
Pokémon: Ultra Moon
Pokémon: Ultra Sun & Moon Dual Pack
Super Mario Maker
Super Smash Bros.
Mario Party: The Top 100
Minecraft
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions
Mario Kart 7
Pokemon: Sun

The best-selling games of 2017 so far

Call of Duty: WWII
Destiny 2**
NBA 2K18
Madden NFL 18
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
Grand Theft Auto V
For Honor
Injustice 2
Horizon Zero Dawn

The best-selling games over the last 12 months

Call of Duty: WWII
Destiny 2**
NBA 2K18
Madden NFL 18
Grand Theft Auto V
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
NBA 2K17
Final Fantasy XV

Hardware and accessories

Sony’s PlayStation 4 has stayed at the top as the best-selling platform, and November didn’t change that. It stayed No. 1, and Sony also sold more consoles than any other month in the PS4’s lifetime.

Hardware sales were up 52 percent year-over-year, reaching $1.1 billion. Aside from the PlayStation 4, this is also thanks to the popularity of the Nintendo Switch and Microsoft’s Xbox One, which also had a record month that outsold any other month life to date. Though the PS4 sold the most number of consoles, the Xbox One brought in more revenue.

“Year to date, hardware spending has grown 28 percent versus 2016 to $3.4B,” said Piscatella. “Consumer spending on Nintendo Switch, Plug N Play devices such as the SNES Classic and the PlayStation 4 continue to fuel growth.”

Accessories also experienced an uptick last month, growing 11 percent year-over-year to $344 million. This is thanks mostly due to gamepads, which sold 30 percent more compared to November 2016.
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
Variety is the spice of life:
Ostrava04 said:
Xbox One

Call of Duty: WWII
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
NBA 2K18
Madden NFL 18
FIFA 18
Need for Speed: Payback
Destiny 2
Forza Motorsport 7
Middle-earth: Shadow of War

PlayStation 4

Call of Duty: WWII
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
NBA 2K18
Madden NFL 18
FIFA 18
Need for Speed: Payback
Destiny 2
Grand Theft Auto V
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus*
Click to expand...

Two consoles serving the exact same market.

Also just Dance made it into the top selling games list of the month yet only appearing in the Switch's top 10. Maybe it's safe to assume that it brought the bigger numbers on the platform. Ubisoft most be very pleased.

“Year to date, hardware spending has grown 28 percent versus 2016 to $3.4B,” said Piscatella. “Consumer spending on Nintendo Switch, Plug N Play devices such as the SNES Classic and the PlayStation 4 continue to fuel growth.”

Accessories also experienced an uptick last month, growing 11 percent year-over-year to $344 million. This is thanks mostly due to gamepads, which sold 30 percent more compared to November 2016.
Click to expand...
Basically the positive effect of the Switch in the industry. Makes one remember the Wii days. ANd the console has had a major effect on accessory sales. This let's the cash flow go to other less traditional players, 3rd party accessory makers get some action. This is how a console should contribute to the health of the industry in general instead of just focusing on AAA stuff making studios close it's doors.
 
J

JP

Member
Good results all round it seems.
Refreshment.01 said:
Two consoles serving the exact same market.
Click to expand...
It's known as the Christmas market, the lets make loads of money market. I'm pretty sure that all three consoles would welcome a piece of that market, if they could. ��
 
L

Louis Cyphre

Banned
I like seeing the PC growth but it sure pales to console sales but I would wager digital is missing?

PS4 no exclusives made it in the top 10, surprising to see GT: Sport kind of drop off quickly. The $199 system was dominant though.

Nintendo is the main reason for why year over year is up so much.

Wonder what percentage the Xbox One X contributed to Xbox sales?
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
JP said:
Good results all round it seems.

It's known as the Christmas market, the lets make loads of money market. I'm pretty sure that all three consoles would welcome a piece of that market, if they could. ��
Click to expand...
It's downright a mirror image, there's no exclusive software disrupting that reflection which is a very important part of the point of having closed plattforms such as game consoles.

One of the competitors answers, is to release a console iteration that plays the exact same games a little better a lot more expensive. i would expect dynamics between these 2 competitors to be more engaging, speaking of course, for the sake of the industry.
 
L

Lemondish

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
It's downright a mirror image, there's no exclusive software disrupting that reflection which is a very important part of the point of having closed plattforms such as game consoles.

One of the competitors answers, is to release a console iteration that plays the exact same games a little better a lot more expensive. i would expect dynamics between these 2 competitors to be more engaging, speaking of course, for the sake of the industry.
Click to expand...

One month does not an industry make.
 
J

JP

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
It's downright a mirror image, there's no exclusive software disrupting that reflection which is a very important part of the point of having closed plattforms such as game consoles.
Click to expand...
Pretty normal at the most important time of the year in terms of sales, usually for a console that has the larger game titles it doesn't really make sense for them to release their own titles at the same time as they'll simply lose sales in compassion to the really big sellers. If the consoles didn't have the biggest games titles at that time of the year then it would make sense for them to sell their own titles.

It's not happening due to a lack of variety in games on either of those platforms, they just know what titles are the biggest selling games at that time of the year. There simply isn't a time of the year that's more "mass market" than the pre-Christmas rush and I'm sure that Sony, Microsoft AND Nintendo would all love to be reaping the rewards of the most lucrative time of the year, particularly when you've not had to spend any money on not actually making the big sellers.

It would be very easy money for all three console manufacturers and the sales figures shown here would suggest that not having exclusives to compete with the more lucrative games hasn't really been an issue for either of them this Christmas.

Now, if we were talking about a lack of exclusives throughout the year then it could indeed be relevant but we aren't, we're discussing a very particular time of the year where very particular things happen in terms of sales and in terms of revenue.
 
JaxBriggs

JaxBriggs

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
It's downright a mirror image, there's no exclusive software disrupting that reflection which is a very important part of the point of having closed plattforms such as game consoles.
Click to expand...

Before we go down the "see exclusives don't sell" path, it's worth noting that these lists are revenue based, so we essentially have new AAA (mostly full price or close to it) multiplat games making up the bulk of the list, versus exclusives that launched earlier in the year and have been mostly heavily reduced in price by now.

It's not really all that surprising to see exclusives missing out on making the top 10 when all things considered.
 
SMOK3Y

SMOK3Y

Generous Member
Refreshment.01 said:
It's downright a mirror image, there's no exclusive software disrupting that reflection which is a very important part of the point of having closed plattforms such as game consoles.

One of the competitors answers, is to release a console iteration that plays the exact same games a little better a lot more expensive. i would expect dynamics between these 2 competitors to be more engaging, speaking of course, for the sake of the industry.
Click to expand...

Lemondish said:
One month does not an industry make.
Click to expand...
Yup i haven't bought a multiplayer game other than Destiny 1 & 2. 95% of them are single player & over 60% or more are PS4 exclusive
 
tkscz

tkscz

Member
Nintendo Switch*

Super Mario Odyssey
Mario Kart 8
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Splatoon 2
Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Sonic Forces
Doom 2016
Pokken Tournament DX
Just Dance 2018
Click to expand...

Bethesda came out pretty good, but Sega can't be too happy with Sonic Forces unless it did a lot better digitally.
 
K

Kid Ying

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
Variety is the spice of life:


Two consoles serving the exact same market.

Also just Dance made it into the top selling games list of the month yet only appearing in the Switch's top 10. Maybe it's safe to assume that it brought the bigger numbers on the platform. Ubisoft most be very pleased.


Basically the positive effect of the Switch in the industry. Makes one remember the Wii days. ANd the console has had a major effect on accessory sales. This let's the cash flow go to other less traditional players, 3rd party accessory makers get some action. This is how a console should contribute to the health of the industry in general instead of just focusing on AAA stuff making studios close it's doors.
Click to expand...
Did they released an Wii/wiiu version of Just dance along with the others?
 
tkscz

tkscz

Member
faint. said:
Sega has bigger problems to worry about with Sonic Team than units sold on Switch.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean just on Switch, but Switch is the only console with Sonic Forces on it's top selling list. And Sega won't do anything about Sonic Team's current condition.
 
J

JP

Member
djblackice said:
$199 sweet spot. Should get here soon for everyone hopefully.
Click to expand...
It will surely happen but I don't think that it will until they feel the need to drop it to that price. They'll obviously get more sales at the lower price but if they're making an extra $50 per sale and outselling the competition it may be worth them holding onto the higher price and maybe going the value-add route of sticking more stuff inside the box.

I do think that $200 is the true mass market point for the PS4 though, once that's the standard price they'll be completely unstoppable. Maybe it'll happen next year sometime.

EDIT:
Do we have any idea what sales price they're no longer making a profit at? I'm wondering if they do drop to $200 this year whether thy'll be able to drop to $150 for the Christmas sales which would be a crazy price for the console.
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
Lemondish said:
One month does not an industry make.
Click to expand...
Isn't the dire panorama of Xbox exclusives an ongoing criticism extend to MS for most of the 8th generation? That counts for several months.

JP said:
Pretty normal at the most important time of the year in terms of sales, usually for a console that has the larger game titles it doesn't really make sense for them to release their own titles at the same time as they'll simply lose sales in compassion to the really big sellers. If the consoles didn't have the biggest games titles at that time of the year then it would make sense for them to sell their own titles.
Click to expand...
This observation is indeed correct and one that has been pointed out for decades (myself included). However, Sony and MS do release important exclusives for the hollyday period (from last weeks of october up to december) and also they do like to group up important releases for the closing quarter of March.

So in practice the companies do not follow the sound advice. For this year it has to do more with their 1st party release schedule not able to be on time for the season.

JP said:
It's not happening due to a lack of variety in games on either of those platforms, they just know what titles are the biggest selling games at that time of the year. There simply isn't a time of the year that's more "mass market" than the pre-Christmas rush and I'm sure that Sony, Microsoft AND Nintendo would all love to be reaping the rewards of the most lucrative time of the year, particularly when you've not had to spend any money on not actually making the big sellers.

Now, if we were talking about a lack of exclusives throughout the year then it could indeed be relevant but we aren't, we're discussing a very particular time of the year where very particular things happen in terms of sales and in terms of revenue.
Click to expand...
i don't think i implied a "lack of variety" in these consoles catalogues, well or at least that wasn't the intention. It was more about pointing out a "3rd wheel" type of situation when one of the competitors is mostly redundant.

With that said your observation about the holyday panorama of sales is valid and i totally agree with.
JaxBriggs said:
Before we go down the "see exclusives don't sell" path, it's worth noting that these lists are revenue based, so we essentially have new AAA (mostly full price or close to it) multiplat games making up the bulk of the list, versus exclusives that launched earlier in the year and have been mostly heavily reduced in price by now.

It's not really all that surprising to see exclusives missing out on making the top 10 when all things considered.
Click to expand...
That's when talking about non Nintendo made exclsusives since them manage to appear in this year list and on a subsatantially smaller user base.

Kid Ying said:
Did they released an Wii/wiiu version of Just dance along with the others?
Click to expand...
i think they did release for Wii and Wii U at the same time.
 
JaxBriggs

JaxBriggs

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
That's when talking about non Nintendo made exclsusives since them manage to appear in this year list and on a subsatantially smaller user base.
Click to expand...

Nintendo exclusives making up more of the top 10 makes more sense when you consider they also miss out on most of the big AAA mutliplat releases. Essentially (and this isn't a dig at the platform) there are less big multiplat games competing for Switch owners dollars, so exclusives naturally get more of a look in.
 
Unknown?

Unknown?

Member
JaxBriggs said:
Nintendo exclusives making up more of the top 10 makes more sense when you consider they also miss out on most of the big AAA mutliplat releases. Essentially (and this isn't a dig at the platform) there are less big multiplat games competing for Switch owners dollars, so exclusives naturally get more of a look in.
Click to expand...
Yup! If WW2 released on Switch it’d likely be #1 too.
 
R

RedRedSuit

Member
Horizon a top 10 selling title in 2017? That’s very impressive. Consider: exclusive, new IP, offline, a strange concept that tends to turn people off — at least anecdotally speaking, generic name. Oh, and a female lead (yes, I’m aware of Lara Croft; but a male protagonist is still seen as the safer choice sales-wise). Does all that sound like recipe for success? More like the opposite. Sounds like an expensive flop (even though to many of us it sounds amazing).

Either GG/Sony have access to amazing social scientists and focus groups, or Sony is really friendly to expensive experimentation.

(That’s not to say I’m a huge fan of the game. It LOOKS stunning (dialog face uncanny valley aside). Otherwise I found it solid but lost interest about 10 hours in. I’ll certainly finish it someday though. It just didn’t totally suck me in. A little punishing: that may have been the buggest annoyance factor; I didn’t feel like I was mastering the world.)
 
N

NicknameMy

Neo Member
Considering that over 25% of digital sales possibly aren't counted and digital sales give more revenue than physcial sales plus the fact that I don't think the Odyssey-Switch-Bundle isn't counted as it contains a download code I would guess that Odyssey would truly be in the top 3.
 
geordiemp

geordiemp

Member
NicknameMy said:
Considering that over 25% of digital sales possibly aren't counted and digital sales give more revenue than physcial sales plus the fact that I don't think the Odyssey-Switch-Bundle isn't counted as it contains a download code I would guess that Odyssey would truly be in the top 3.
Click to expand...

Digital sales depend on the type of game and the platform, so Games as a service like Destiny is silly like 50 % or more.

Dont know how down load codes are worked out, but in general with limited memory I did not consider switch as a high digital platform
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
JaxBriggs said:
Nintendo exclusives making up more of the top 10 makes more sense when you consider they also miss out on most of the big AAA mutliplat releases. Essentially (and this isn't a dig at the platform) there are less big multiplat games competing for Switch owners dollars, so exclusives naturally get more of a look in.
Click to expand...
im aware of this. However, what you point out is more apparent in the top seller list within the Switch only, whereas im talking about the general console top software chart.

In this general top seller list, Nintendo exclusives compete with games appearing in 2 to 3 platforms total and in a list that is revenue oriented no less.

RedRedSuit said:
Horizon a top 10 selling title in 2017? That’s very impressive. Consider: exclusive, new IP, offline, a strange concept that tends to turn people off — at least anecdotally speaking, generic name. Oh, and a female lead (yes, I’m aware of Lara Croft; but a male protagonist is still seen as the safer choice sales-wise). Does all that sound like recipe for success? More like the opposite. Sounds like an expensive flop (even though to many of us it sounds amazing).

Either GG/Sony have access to amazing social scientists and focus groups, or Sony is really friendly to expensive experimentation.
Click to expand...
What games have suffered in sales due to having a female lead?

Alloy is as safe as you can get for a character lead. It's basically tailor made for the now legendary stereotyped demographic game executives like to pursue.

An amazing looking 1st party published game with solid gameplay and well marketed sold well is my perspective on the matter.

If i have to name a candidate with that set conditions you imposed maybe Nier Automata relative sales success would be more impressive? Although maybe this is off topic since i would be talking about world wide sales.
 
R

RedRedSuit

Member
^— I don’t know if female leads are riskier than males. I do know the industry traditionally thinks that’s the case, and chooses males, which means this would have been seen at least as a mild risk. GG spoke of this assumption. Not the only risk or biggest one, hence why I didn’t even remember it at first. Overall, if I described to you an exclusive dinosaur robot single player new IP with a huge budget and a female lead involved in a million dialogue driven quests, you’d laugh at me and predict a flop, not a 6 or 8 million seller or whatever it is. Yet Sony gave them the money. Must have been one hell of a prototype demo.

Selling well is one thing. Top 10 in 2017 is another — clearly visible given the rest of that list. Plus it’s first party, so it is closer to pure profit for Sony.

Another one I don’t quite get is GTA V. Excellent single-player game, yes, but it was released years ago. Is the multiplayer a masterpiece by now? Back then I don’t recall praise heaped on it. And the single-player isn’t like THAT special, really. It has its moments but certainly overly linear in missions. *shrug* But this may just be a case of me not keeping up on what drives that GTA online ecosystem.
 
M

Mooreberg

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
Variety is the spice of life:


Two consoles serving the exact same market.
Click to expand...
Microsoft has has had a publishing strategy since half way through the 360 era that really only works when you are the market leader (which they were for a while after Wii hit a wall). Xbox One might be the least differentiated "second place" console that has ever existed.
 
delete12345

delete12345

Member
Reason why it's selling much?

We are at the generation where there's more births than death in the total human population.
 
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