Once is not customary, let’s talk about consoles, to start. Despite now full availability and the usual November holiday promotions, sales of our machines fell 24% in value compared to last year, totaling $964 million, a figure that includes PlayStation Portal. which quickly ran out of stock. If we easily forgive the aging Switch for having recorded the biggest drop (especially since it has just overtaken the Xbox 360, we’ll talk about it below) the disappointment comes from the PS5 and Xbox Series, all guilty of a drop in more than 20% in volume.
A fairly unexpected result which, according to the best available estimates, brings the PS5 to around one million sales and the Xbox Series to around 580,000 sales (slightly above the Switch). For the month of November and at this stage of the generation, these results can be described as instead disappointing for the blue team and very disappointing for the green team, which will also be banking on a Xbox Series X at $399 to get back on track in December. The PS5 is in any case certain to end the year well ahead of sales, both in volume and in value. Barring a spectacular turnaround in December, the Switch holds its second place in volume and value.
The Switch knocks the Xbox 360 off the podium
Other size information transmitted by Mat Piscatella in the process, this month of November saw the total sales of the Switch surpass the Xbox 360 fleet. By far the biggest performance of Microsoft on its soil, in particular due to remarkable endurance and a second breath brought by the Kinect in 2010, the Xbox 360 is therefore knocked off the podium by the no less exceptional Nintendo machine, whose total at Uncle Sam’s is therefore around 43 million. The Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 are the only other consoles with a higher base than the Switch. For now.
Hogwarts Legacy stands up to Call of Duty
Whoever goes hunting loses his place. Solid number 1 in October, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 leaves its crown without much surprise at the annual Kalof, even though the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is far from equaling the record of its predecessor, as we have seen particularly in the United Kingdom. Notably, Sledhegammer Games’ FPS did not immediately take the top spot in sales for the current year, with Hogwarts Legacy putting up resistance that was all the more notable as the release of its Switch version allowed the game to rise again. on the podium in November. Everything will therefore be decided in December, but it is not impossible that the Warner Bros. game. Games keeps its place and prevents Call of Duty from seizing the throne, which has not happened since 2018 (Red Dead Redemption 2) and 2013 (Grand Theft Auto 5).
At Nintendo, Super Mario RPG ranks 7th, while Super Mario Bros. Wonder stabilizes in the top 5. And that’s it. In addition to the absence of the latest WarioWare, titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gave way to the strong return of God of War Ragnarok (36th the previous month) and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (23rd the previous month). The result is a fairly rare spectacle of only two Nintendo games in the top 20, symbol of a platform which is seeing the end of its potential.
- Note: As Epic Games Publishing is not part of the Circana panel, Alan Wake 2 does not appear in these rankings. The only clue regarding its performance in November, a 12th place on the PlayStation Store in the United States, ultimately quite stable after its 11th place in October.
25 years later, Star Ocean 2 warms hearts
Apart from that, this monthly review confirms things that we already knew, namely that it would be time to stop pulling on Persona 5 (Persona 5 Tactica absent from the top 20) while Bandai Namco can heat up Naruto at your leisure and continue to benefit from it. The beautiful story of the month? Star Ocean: The Second Story R which rises in this ranking in value despite its price of 40 dollars. Overall, this month of November compares poorly with last year which benefited from the launches of God of War Ragnarok and Pokémon Scarlet/Pokémon Violet. As a result, spending in the gaming department fell by 3% ($4.6 billion).
In addition, Circana now offers a ranking based on the number of active users, at the top of which Fortnite remains untouchable. These rankings above all allow us to measure the impact of PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions on the most popular games. On PlayStation, the best example is Aliens: Fireteam Elite which jumped from 714th to 11th place, while Wild Hearts went from 501st to 18th among the most played titles on Xbox. On Steam, the phenomenon of this end of year is called Lethal Company, the cooperative horror game being beaten only by Counter-Strike 2 in number of players. The venerable Half-Life also jumped into the top 20 thanks to its 25th anniversary update.
- Also read | Results from the previous month