November game spending slides 7% | US Monthly Charts

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Circana today released its monthly US game spending report, with the industry’s total November haul taking a hit thanks to year-over-year declines in hardware and console software spending.

For the November reporting period, total game spending in the US was down 7% to $5.87 billion.

Spending on game content (full game, add-on, and microtransaction sales as well as subscriptions across console, mobile, PC, VR, and cloud platforms) was down 3% to $4.6 billion, but Circana singled out console and handheld software spending as the weak point, citing a tough comparison against last November’s launches of God of War: Ragnarok and Pokémon: Scarlet and Violet.

That drop comes despite one factor working in November’s favor, the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Last year’s Modern Warfare 2 launched earlier, so its flurry of launch sales and preorders boosted the October monthly total instead.

Modern Warfare 3 debuted at the top of the November sales charts, leading a field of four new releases in the top 20.

Nintendo’s Super Mario RPG remake landed in seventh spot based solely on the strength of its boxed copy sales, while Naruto x Baruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections made it to 12th on the charts, and Star Ocean: The Second Story R finished in 17th place.

Gaming hardware took a steep dip in November, down 24% to $964 million.

All the major consoles saw a double-digit percentage decline in sales, with the Switch falling the furthest.

The PS5 was once again the best-selling platform in dollar and unit sales, followed by Xbox Series X|S in both measures.

Circana classifies PlayStation Portal as a hardware platform rather than an accessory, so it reported it as the fourth-best-selling platform, saying it sold through its limited shipments entirely.

As for bright spots, mobile game spending and accessory spending were both up.

Sensor Tower tracking found mobile spending up 2.6% year-over-year, with Monopoly Go continuing to hold the top grossing title, and Coin Master bouncing back into the top five.

As for accessories, sales were up 3% to $303 million, largely driven by controller sales like the month’s best-seller, the PS5 Midnight Black Dual Sense controller.

Here are the top 20 selling games from the period of October 29 to November 25, data courtesy of Circana:

*Digital sales not included

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