Sales up 10% following Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch | US Monthly Charts

US games consumer spending was back on the rise in October, boosted by the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

According to Circana’s monthly data, hardware, software, and accessories sales combined went up 10% year-on-year, reaching $4.7 billion.

Breaking down this figure, content represented $4.23 billion, a 12% rise compared to October 2023, while hardware was down 23% to $249 million.

Black Ops 6 debuted at No.1 in the October US charts, and became the third best selling game of 2024 to date. Circana noted that non-mobile subscriptions spending grew 16% compared to the same period last year, which it attributed to the launch of Black Ops 6 on Game Pass. (Xbox announced at the end of October that the title was breaking records for Game Pass subscriptions)

Circana also highlighted that console content was the biggest contributor to the overall rise in content spending, with a 27% increase compared to the same period last year, driven by digital full game sales.

“PlayStation platforms accounted for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 total console full game dollar sales volume during the October tracking period,” said Circana’s Mat Piscatella.

He added: “Over its first two weeks in market, full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 were 23% higher than the full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) over its first two weeks in market a year ago.”

Eight of the US charts’ top ten for October were new entries, with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero debuting at No.2 and Silent Hill 2 (2024) at No.3.

EA’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard had to settle for No.6 while Sega scored two new entries in the top ten: Metaphor: ReFantazio at No.5 and Sonic X Shadows Generations at No.9

Here are the top 20 selling games from October 6 to November 2, 2024 data courtesy of Circana:

*Digital sales not included, ^Xbox and Switch digital sales not included, ^^Digital sales on Nintendo platforms not included.