Activision"s first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was the best-selling video game in the US in November 2023. That"s according to the numbers from Mat Piscatella, the Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst at the research firm Circana (formerly NPD Group).
In a series of X (formerly Twitter) posts, Piscatella noted that this was the fifth straight year that a game in the Call of Duty series was the number one best-selling game in November. Modern Warfare III has also become the second best-selling game for 2023 as a whole, behind only Hogwarts Legacy.
It"s possible that the Warner Bros Games title could hold off Modern Warfare III as the best-selling game of the year once December 2023 sales numbers come in. If it does, Piscatella states that Hogwarts Legacy will be the first game to hit that mark that isn"t a Call of Duty game or a Rockstar-published game since way back in 2008.
Nov 2023 US Video Game Market Highlights from Circana - U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories fell 7% when compared to a year ago, to $5.9 billion. The decline was driven by a 24% drop in hardware spending and a 3% dip in content. pic.twitter.com/le1vme6kLN
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) December 13, 2023
Overall video game revenue (hardware, software and accessories) in the US in November 2023 was $5.867 billion, down from $6.294 billion in November 2022. Much of that decline was due to a 24 percent decrease in game console spending. So far, 2023 overall video game revenue has reached $49.3 billion, which is just 1 percent higher than in 2022.
One other thing to note: Starfield, Microsoft"s biggest first party game release of 2023, dropped out completely from the top 20 best-selling video game charts in November, after hitting number one in September, and then ranked 14th in October. It is still the 10th best-selling game of 2023 so far.