The NPD Group have released their full North American sales data for October 2019, and the year-on-year comparisons aren’t pretty. Consumers spent $1.03 billion on games and hardware, down 34 percent compared to October 2018. Now, the side-by-side isn’t entirely fair – October 2018 saw the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty came out at the beginning of the month that year. That said, there’s no putting any sort of happy face on hardware sales, which are down 41 percent year on year. Nintendo Switch was again #1, gaining sales year-on-year, but the PS4 and Xbox One continue to sputter badly.

　　October was, of course, a big month for new releases with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, The Outer Worlds, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 coming in at #1, 2, and 3, respectively. Other new additions include Ghost Recon Breakpoint at #6 (a big disappointment for a major Ubisoft release), WWE 2K20 at #7 (honestly, a best-case scenario consider how bad the game is), and Ring Fit Adventure at #10.

　　Here are October’s top-20 games according to NPD:

　　Call of Duty: Modern WarfareThe Outer WorldsLuigi’s Mansion 3Madden NFL 20NBA 2K20Ghost Recon BreakpointWWE 2K20FIFA 20Borderlands 3Ring Fit AdventureThe Legend of Zelda: Link’s AwakeningMario Kart 8MinecraftGrand Theft Auto VMortal Kombat 11OverwatchSuper Smash Bros. UltimateCode VeinRed Dead Redemption IIThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildAnd here are the NPD best-sellers of 2019 so far. Unsurprisingly, CoD: Modern Warfare has immediately jumped to the top of the list:

　　Call of Duty: Modern WarfareNBA 2K20Madden NFL 20Borderlands 3Mortal Kombat 11Kingdom Hearts IIITom Clancy’s The Division 2AnthemSuper Smash Bros. UltimateGrand Theft Auto VWhat games did you pick up in October? Anything unexpected in this month’s NPD numbers?