NPD: Pokémon Sun and Moon Best-Selling Game in November in the US - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 16 December 2016 / 9,712 Views

The combined sales of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon were enough to be the best-selling game in November in the US, according to NPD. The figure does not include any digital sales.

NPD’s Sam Naji said the game had the "strongest launch in the history of the franchise." It outsold the combined first month of Pokémon Black and Pokémon White by eight percent, despite having been available for 19 fewer days.

When you don't combine the sales of the two Pokémon games, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare topped the charts in its first month. Sales for the game dropped 19 percent year-on-year.

"The decline can be fully attributed to the top three selling games which, combined, sold 43% less than the top three games from last November," said Naji. "Combined spending across all other titles grew 12% in November compared with a year ago."

He added, "The year-on-year software revenue decline was driven by the strong comparison to last November’s top 3 titles – Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Fallout 4 and Star Wars: Battlefront, which were all full-priced console new releases.

"This month’s top three games were Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1, and Pokemon Sun. Battlefield 1 launched in October, and Pokémon Sun launched at a lower [price] than last November’s console games. As all titles outside of the top three grew a combined 12% vs year ago, it is the top three title grouping that drove the year-on-year decline."

Here is the NPD top 10 best-selling games in November in the US:

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Battlefield 1
Pokémon Sun (no digital sales included)
Pokémon Moon (no digital sales included)
Titanfall 2
NBA 2K17
Madden NFL 17
Watch Dogs 2
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (no digital sales included)
FIFA 17

As previously reported, the PlayStation 4 outsold the Xbox One in November. This is after the Xbox One outsold the PlayStation 4 for four straight months. The PS4 Slim 500GB Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End bundle was the best-selling PS4 SKU.

Sales of the Nintendo 3DS increased 59 percent-on-year. This is the sixth straight month of year-on-year growth. The NES Classic Edition sold 196,000 units.

Overall, hardware revenue decreased 35 percent year-on-year. That is due to the lower price of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The video game industry drew in $1.97 billion in revenue in the US in November. That is a 24 percent drop year-on-year. Console software sales dropped 18 percent to $955.2 million and PC software sales decreased 28 percent to $27.5 million.

Hardware sales dropped 35 percent to $723.8 million. Accessory sales declined six percent to $259.8 million.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.