PS5 Best-Selling Console in the US in November as Sales Drop, Call of Duty Debuts in 1st - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 December 2023 / 8,485 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the US in November 2023 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the four week period of October 29 to November 25.
The Xbox Series X|S was second best-selling console in terms of units sold and dollar sales. The Nintendo Switch was third best-selling console in terms of units sold and dollar sales.
All three consoles are down by over 20 percent year-on-year despite discounts and bundles.
2023 year-to-date the PlayStation 5 is the best-selling console in terms of both units sold and dollar sales. The Nintendo Switch comes in second place in both units sold and dollar sales, while the Xbox Series X|S comes in third place.
Overall spending on video games in November was down seven percent year-on-year from $6.29 billion to $5.87 billion. Spending on video game content decreased three percent from $4.73 billion to $4.60 billion, while video game hardware sales dropped 24 percent from $1,271 million to $964 million.
Overall spending on video games in 2023 year-to-date is up one percent from $49.00 billion to $49.28 billion. Spending on video game content is up one percent from $41.91 billion to $42.24 billion, while video game hardware sales is down one percent from $5.06 billion to $44.99 billion.
"U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories fell 7% when compared to a year ago, to $5.9 billion," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella. "The decline was driven by a 24% drop in hardware spending and a 3% dip in content."
Piscatella added, "November video game content spending dropped 3% when compared to a year ago, to $4.6 billion. An 11% decline in Console & Portable Content spending was partially offset by 3% growth across each of the Mobile, Subscription, and 'PC, Cloud & Non-Console VR' Content segments."
There were four new releases in the top 20 best-selling games. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III debuted in first place and is already the second best-selling game of 2023. It is the fifth straight year a Call of Duty game was November's best-seller. Red Dead Redemption II came in first in November 2018.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 in its second month dropped from first to second place and remains the fourth best-selling game of 2023.
Hogwarts Legacy shot up the charts from 10th to third place due to the release of the Nintendo Switch version of the game. It remains the best-selling game of 2023. It was also the second best-selling on the Switch for the month.
Super Mario RPG debuted in seventh place, Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections debuted in 12th place, and Star Ocean: The Second Story R debuted in 17th place.
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for November 2023:
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in 2023 year-to-date:
Here are the top 20 games played on the PlayStation 5 ranked by monthly active users:
Here are the top 20 games played on the Xbox Series X|S ranked by monthly active users:
Here are the top 20 games played on Steam ranked by monthly active users:
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Terrible result all round. Though it's amplified for Xbox as they had a weak holiday 2022 already. Comparing Series to Xbox One is a disaster.
PS4 (Nov 2016) - 1.1m
PS5 (Nov 2023) - 1.04m (-5%)
XBO (Nov 2016) - 1.01m
XBS (Nov 2023) - 0.58m (-43%)
"All three consoles are down by over 20 percent year-on-year despite discounts and bundles."
Woah that's terrible, i didn't expect that at all
Most retailers are having the Series X for $399 atm.
@trunkswd - Yeah, I am seeing Series X for $349 at a few places as I'm typing this, which seems really crazy.
@trunkswd
Sorry for asking a stupid question, but:
"Circana includes the dates for the four week period of October 29 to November 25."
Doesn't that mean that 5 full days in November (26th - 30th) are missing then in "November sales"? Probably the days the most console were sold?
Those days will be included in Circana's December report, which covers the dates November 26 to December 30.
Ay, I see.
Mh, I assume it's because keeping the timeframes the same?
Don't know why I never noriced that.
Because, with 5 full days being let out of a month like November, possibly even being the days the consoles sold the highest, leaves me putting the thesis up that in the full 30 days of November '23, the total sales are way better.
That "first" week in the December estimates, which includes 4 days of November then, I guess is going to be pretty huge then.
This is looking like a bad holiday for everyone. Sony is getting nowhere near their fiscal target, Xbox is down over 20% on last year(which was an awful holiday season for them) and Switch is hitting the cliff by the looks of it if that close to - 40% is accurate.
I think the market conditions finally caught up to the video game market.
Yikes, things are not looking good this year. I dont think any company will be reaching their fiscal target now
I don’t know about that. Sony is still set to have their best selling year ever I believe. Xbox sales are not great but in Xbox terms they are ”ok”. Switch is just really saturated at this point. And it’s down 20+% in hardware spending, not in hardware units.
Switch down 46. 5% in units according to VGC estimates...
Regarding their fiscal targets
Switch is down -36.9%, from the estimate, -49.2% in comparison to March 2022 to March 2023 and has the estimate to reach 15M. It needs to sell 5.53M more
Xbox is down -20% from last year and has the estimate of a +5% increase in overall gaming. It needs an increase of +15%.
Sony is down -57% from estimate, -32% in comparison to March 2022 to March 2023, and has an estimate of 25M. It needs to sell 15M more.
PS5 sold 1,135.700 consoles in the US just last month, how is that bad? do you realise the accomplishment to build 50.000.000 consoles since launch? considering 3+ years of component shortage?
It’s good if you’re goal is to beat Xbox, but it’s poor if your goal is to sell 25m copies in the Fiscal year
It reached 50M in its 4th year (according to estimates). November marks its 4th year. Either way it is impressive.
PS4 reached 50M when it entered its 4th year as well.
Switch reached 50M in its 3rd year, DS reached 50M in its 3rd year, and PS2 reached 50M in its 4th year.
Yup, Sony is not hitting 25m target if true.
Switch had a good run. All the heavy console shifters already are on there with at least one game. There is nothing left to push it.
Time for the next round. Switch successor needs to happen next year.
Estimates:
PS5: 1.04m (Down 22%)
Xbox Series: 580k (Down 21%)
Nintendo Switch: 575k (Down 38%).
This results don’t include cyber Monday week. But they are terrible. Nintendo will be silly if they delay Switch 2 to 2025.
PS5 does around 1 268 800 in 2022 and Xbox around 701 800 in 2022 if i'm not wrong ?
Leaks have the PS5 at 1328k and Xbox series at 730k
Switch is second best ever console in Americas and DS remain in first place.Switch is on 8th year in few weeks.The problem is other consoles because 4 holidays-3 years with low numbers.I predict low ps5 numbers lifetime.like ps3 and without psp.
lol, PS5 is way ahead of PS3 in US, nothing indicates numbers bellow 90M WW.
The switch is also way behind the PS2 in America still
Launch aligned Switch isn't behind PS2.
Nintendo should definitely have been more agressive with their bundles if they dropped a third or more (to fall below Xbox). With PS I honestly don't know how it went this badly, but I suppose Europe will be better.
Maybe Nintendo isn't worried since the next console comes out in 2024. Either way this isn't good news for any of them to have such low numbers in November, in the USA.
When the only Nintendo games in the top twenty are new releases, that’s a terrible sign for hardware sales: There exists a strong correlation between buying a Switch for the Holidays and purchasing MarioKart. That’s a massive drop for Nintendo, and unfortunately the economy isn’t going to be any stronger for NG 2024 release.
PS5 way underperformed as well: I suspect the Activision acquisition certainly allowed Xbox to stay competitive in America, being how large CoD is here.
What’s especially shocking is how in a year where Hogwarts and TotK break sales records, holiday figures are shockingly low: Maybe the market is shifting? That is, maybe the demographics who are purchasing video game consoles are the ones who can afford to do so when interest is piqued throughout the year.
It's being reported that sales of video game currency are now outpacing actual video games. I'm guessing a lot of that is being driven by GaaS like Fortnite and Roblox, which has been advertising rather heavily of late.
The reasons for those low numbers are in my option
1) PS5 Slim isn't the big hit because of the same price as the original model
2) Switch is entering saturation
3) Due to high inflation people have to save their money for other things than consumer electronics
they need to take fortnite of ps4/xbox one (and all other top gaas).. It's killing the sales of new consoles.
GTV is desperately needed. I think economic factors are to play but maybe also lack of generation defining games is also a problem. It's like we've been playing PS4.5 games for the first 3 years of the generation.
PS5 is still king
Yea this is what i was anticipating. Nintendo really is letting the Switch die and will phase it out with the new release next year. They could have pushed it to have better numbers in March but i do believe they don't care cause at that point they will probably share news a new console is coming and so they won't take a hit. That's why i think the Switch will die between 145-150 millions, which is a STELLAR performance.
For the PS5 and Xbox, this is kinda worrying news. Some saying "they don't have big holiday titles" while Sony just put out the sequel to the biggest game on PS4 and had the annual Call of Duty that did still a solid performance. I don't know if it's recession, but it seems like these two companies will have to be more aggressive than they have to keep the demand up. Sony is not meeting the 25 million target at all and might be hitting a decline already starting next year. Microsoft just weren't prepared for a next gen and the games will be coming too late.
Are Americans just not into video games this Christmas season?
Is there any disposable income?
Are the games just not interesting?
What happened?
Big OOF for Sony, and RIP Nintendo Switch. -40% is very sad to see. Microsoft has a booboo.
I think the economy is just hurting everyone right now.
With all the massive releases this year, discounts/bundles, as well the PS5 being in its third year, this holiday season should’ve been historic: The only possible reason that comes to mind is that people’s economic conditions are just terrible (relative to the past few decades) at the moment. Completely agree with method114.
Yes I was very surprised to see this “depression” of sales.
And I totally agree it should’ve been a historic month for the PS5. What was the PS5’s holiday game?
What was Nintendo’s holiday game?
Super Mario Wonder and SMRPG were the closest things Nintendo had to a holiday game. There simply isn't much left on the Switch. They're focusing on next gen now.
Agreed, and having your big holiday game come out in October and a remake in November doesn't sound very Big Holiday Game like.
Their big game of the year was Tears of the Kingdom, which launched in spring and has been a fantastic success with probably over 20 million units sold by now. It's still held onto the number three slot of best-selling games of the year (behind Hogwarts and the usual Cawladoody) despite some pretty fierce competition like Diablo IV, Starfield, and Baldur's Gate. But it was clear that as far as major releases went that TotK was going to be the swan song for the Switch. It makes me sad, as the Switch has become my favorite system of all time. Most of what I'll be getting on it going forward will be Falcom games, lol. Star Ocean 2 was a pretty amazing remake, though.
I do agree that the economy is terrible right now. I was just wondering if any other reasons cause this low of sales for games and consoles in one of the highest selling months of the year.
Thanks :)
51M Switch in Americas until September.About 53M plus until December.Means...second best ever console in Americas in few new year weeks.DS remain in first place and begin 8th year for Switch.
I don't know why you love posting this lie so much. You're like a conspiracy theorist.
Playstation can start worrying at selling less this fiscal year than last year at this rate. Which thanks to a very respectable fiscal Q4 still had 19 million units shipped. Didn't see this recession coming after a pretty decent Fiscal Q2.
Don't be silly. VGC sell-through estimates for Apr-Oct 2022 is 6.4m, Apr-Oct 2023 is 9.3m. They're ahead of last fiscal year in sell-through by almost 3m units.
Not to mention that Japan and UK sales for November are both around double last year. It may be 20%+ down in the USA YoY but globally it is likely to have done better this November than last November.
There is essentially zero chance it sells less than last Fiscal year.
No way in hell ps5 is going to hit bellow 22M.
